Emerging from their recent affair with djent, Haken are reaching back to their tried and true progressive metal style that graced albums like The Mountain and Affinity, with their new album Fauna. You will find plenty of synth led shenanigans that remind of the early Haken albums in songs like “Nightingale” and “Elephants Never Forget”, 80’s feel in songs like “Lovebite” and “Alphabet of Me” a lá Affinity and even some turns into heavier riffing on “Beneath the White Rainbow”. As per the album’s theme, songs that are based around different animals, no song is meant to be the other alike. This is unfortunately a hit and miss concept as if you are not careful, the work will present as a fractured mess. Fauna is not a mess exactly, but the theme spreads the songs out here in a way that makes the work feel incoherent as there is no red thread to follow. It is not an approach that is headed for instant failure but with tracks as long as these it gets hard to get a complete sense of the whole.
Exacerbating this problem is the fact that Haken rely a lot on their older way of writing songs. They should really not fix what isn’t broken, but there is also an air to these songs where their older siblings on previous albums are just better written and focused. It leads to the new material being less exciting for returning fans as they can just listen to better versions of these songs. Of course, one should not expect a band to reinvent themselves each time but this puts greater importance on sharp songwriting. “Taurus”, “Nightingale”, “Beneath the White Rainbow” and “Elephants Never Forget” all exemplify this as they have promising sections recalling The Mountain yet get lost on their way to the conclusion, being way too long for their own good. Standing out from the rest, “Island in the Clouds” takes on a weird, yet great and groovy approach and makes a case for what Fauna could have been had it been more focused. This song flows from groove to some inspired palm muted riffing to a Tool inspired breakdown. When Haken are experimenting a bit with trying on different styles like in this song and the Leprous inspired “Sempiternal Beings”, things turn interesting. But ultimately Fauna is too unfocused to connect from point A to B, making it a less impressive animal than it could have been.
