VISIONS

After the excellent Aquarius first cd, Haken is back with their second. Could they achieve the same level quality on this one? First, the band start with a instrumental track with a classical intro and symphonic arrangements. The rest of the cd contains vocals, the usual Haken prog metal's sound, who got a lot of Dream Theater's and Magellan's influence. Nice keyboards, complex guitar parts, a good rhythm section, and vocals that give more emotion to the melody. The band add to this metal sound, some jazzy tones, a little techno beat in the middle of a song. All this, around many tempo changes that are all culminated in the incredible epic song at the end. On this epic, the band display all the tricks by going in many different styles of music, without losing the melody, and keeping the concept of the song intact by repeating the theme, from the beginning, at the end. With this strong finish, the band has surpassed his previous effort. There is a little bit more variety in this cd and their last epic is at this time, the best thing they have done.