Haken - Fauna | Album Review

By: The Ballad - 3/12/2023

Fauna is the seventh studio album from English progressive metal band, Haken. Released on March 3rd, 2023 through Inside Out Music, this album follows their 2020 release, Virus. It is the first album without keyboardist Diego Tejeida, as founding member, Peter Jones, returns to take his spot. Preceded by four singles, with the first one, “Nightingale”, being released back in April 2022, with the next, “The Alphabet of Me”, not coming out until December of the same year year. Singer, Ross Jennings, commented that, “When composing and presenting initial song sketches, we very much had an ‘anything goes’ mentality, and whilst sounding atypically Haken, it was a piece that was all exciting us to explore and integrate into our song canon.” He and guitarist Richard Henshall also note that the theme of spirit animals is incorporated heavily into the themes of the album, “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it… we took that and thought about how it could relate to our everyday lives. All of Fauna's animals relate to us, personally".

1. Taurus

We start off with the third single to be released prior to the album, put out in January 2023. One of the more straightforward and heavier songs on the album; it’s the second shortest, coming in at just under five minutes. It has a pretty common, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus, structure, and overall there isn’t anything too crazy to take note of. I think it works well as the starting track, as it puts you right into the mood of the album and doesn’t waste any time. It still has that Haken sound, but it doesn’t get overwhelming, and doesn’t burn out the listener right from the start.

2. Nightingale

The first single to be released, all the way back in April of 2022, this track is much more traditionally Haken in my opinion. It actually does still use the basic verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure, but expands upon it with pre-choruses. instrumental breaks, and just overall more intricate sections. I’m a big fan of this one, it has the catchy vocal melodies of much of their discography, while still maintaining the heavy riffing and extremely large feel that their longer songs are so good at. The chorus going into the instrumental break, and then out into the bridge in the middle of the song is my personal favorite part. The transitions are very well done, and the return to the chorus towards the end lands perfectly.

3. The Alphabet of Me

The second single to be released, in December of 2022; I remember the first time I heard this song I wasn't too blown away. I think that was because it’s definitely a different sound then I think we’re used to associating with Haken. (Which is somewhat ironic considering what the lyrics seem to be referring to). The chorus is great per usual, but the verse, bridge, and outro definitely have a different, somewhat pop-oriented feel towards them. It isn’t actually pop, obviously, but it has that upbeat, somewhat electronic feel to it. There aren’t any insane time signatures or anything too technically crazy that’s usually associated with prog metal. However now that I’ve listened to it a decent bit, I’ve changed my mind and think that it’s definitely a solid, well written song. The contrast between the more relaxed verse and bridge, and the super huge choruses really gives this track an interesting sound that I like.

4. Sempiternal Beings

Our first non single, “Sempiternal Beings” is one of the weaker tracks in my opinion. It’s definitely not bad, and I actually think the lyrics are pretty thought provoking, but musically I just don’t find it as exciting. It has a different structure compared with the singles: verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-instrumental break-chorus-outro. It’s definitely more of a break from the strong start of the album, though it still does have high points in the chorus. Rhythmically it’s pretty interesting, especially the chugging patterns, but that’s pretty much it. There’s a lot of chugging to keep the groove, but not a lot of riffing. The instrumental break is pretty cool; I’d say that section going into the ending chorus and the outro is probably my favorite part.

5. Beneath the White Rainbow

If anyone can tell me how to count the rhythm towards the middle of the song, I’d appreciate it, cause I gave up real quick. As weird as it is, it’s actually very cool, and I sort of get Dream Theater vibes from certain parts of the song; mainly from that rhythmic section in the middle and the voice filtering on the vocals after that section. The riffing, rhythms, everything on the track is just really nasty. A lot more involved and technical then the previous song. I’m a fan, I think this one is super interesting.

6. Island in the Clouds

I would say that the sound of this album isn’t a giant departure from Haken's previous discography, but more so a combination of two of their other albums, Virus and Affinity. This track is a good example; it has the heavy riff sections of Virus, but also the bigger, soaring, somewhat electronic sections of Affinity. Nothing too special to mention about it I would say; it’s good, solid, would definitely listen again, but not my favorite off the record.

7. Lovebite

We finally get to the last single, released on Valentine’s Day, 2023. This track could have been taken straight off Affinity in my opinion. It’s the shortest song on the album, coming in at just under four minutes, and I remember the first time I listened to it I didn’t love it, but the more I’ve listened, like “The Alphabet of Me”, it’s definitely grown on me. It’s also a bit more pop oriented, but the main riff, the keyboard arpeggiation in the choruses, the vocal melodies, solo, just how everything syncs up together is really tight and clean. The chorus in this song is probably one of my favorites on the record; it’s singable, catchy, and just a very memorable section.

8. Elephants Never Forget

Here we go, the longest song on the album by a decent bit, this track comes in at just over 11 minutes. The best way I can describe it is sort of like a circus? It’s quirky, yet theatrical, but still polished and tight. If Haken was asked to write a song to put on Dream Theater’s Train of Thought album; that seems like a pretty accurate analogy. Nasty, groovy, full of time signature changes, but it still has that bigness that Haken does so well. There really isn’t a single section that seems like they put it in just to extend the song out for no reason. Definitely give this one a listen.

9. Eyes of Ebony

The second longest song on the album, coming in at about eight and a half minutes, it’s an interesting choice to not have the longest song cap off the album, but I think this track still does a good job. I would say it’s one of the better non-singles, but isn’t as unique as “Elephants Never Forget”. I get the same feeling from this as I do “Island in the Clouds”. Nothing really too notable to distinguish itself other than the weird song structure, but once again, a solid track. I do wish they had switched this with “Elephants Never Forget” as the final song, but it isn’t a huge deal.

Conclusion:

I think that this newest release from Haken does a good job at progressing the band’s sound while also retaining familiarity. Almost all the songs are very strong, and I think there is a good amount of contrast between them to keep the listener engaged for the full length of the album. It seems more digestible for a general audience rather then only people who are familiar with progressive rock/metal. If you’re just getting into the band’s discography, this probably isn’t where I would start, but it stands easily with their older albums in terms of quality.

Rating: 7.5/10

Favorite Song: Elephants Never Forget