- Country: UK
- Style: Progressive metal
- Label: InsideOut Music
- Release date: 26 October 2018
Short, sharp and heavier than anything they’d done before. Vector clocks in at roughly 45 minutes, and the band use that tighter frame to sound meaner: the djent-leaning grooves are thicker, Adam “Nolly” Getgood’s mix gives the low end real weight, and once the short intro “Clear” is out of the way, “The Good Doctor” bursts in with twitchy, almost funky riffing and Ross Jennings at his most theatrical.
The centrepiece is “Veil”, a twelve-and-a-half-minute epic that shifts from brooding verses to soaring, almost Gentle Giant-like vocal layering and back without ever losing the thread. “Puzzle Box” is a knotty, rewarding workout, and the instrumental “Nil by Mouth” is the closest Haken have come to pure metal aggression. Only “Host” drifts a little, a pretty but slightly shapeless lull before “A Cell Divides” slams the door. A bold, focused fifth album from one of prog’s most reliable bands.
Best tracks:
The Good Doctor
Puzzle Box
Veil
Nil by Mouth
A Cell Divides
Author’s rating: 8.6/10
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