Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Affinity is definitely one ofnmy favorites by Haken. I love every recurring theme, motif, you name it. It hypes me up so much and the 80s vibes are pretty uplifting. Also stuff like Red Giant and Bound by Gravity are a noce change of pace

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

I find myself never returning to Affinity, the whole 'we're doing the 80s' shtick doesn't work for me, feels more like a gimmick to me unfortunately.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Maybe it is, but imo that's not the only thing about the album I like, so that doesn't really matter to me. At its core it's a modern prog metal record with great songs.

I love every single time these lines reoccur:

THEEEEIR DEEEESIIIIGN, SHIIIIFTIIING FRAAAAAME BY FRAAAAAME

WEEEE'LL MAAAAAKE THIS DREEEEEAM LAAAAST FOOOOOREEEEVER

Good shit. Love Affinity

Album Rating: 3.5

Grey knows what's up. Virus and Vector are both good but they lack a little something. The production is so clean and flat it doesn't help either. It sounds good but it has no punch, and for albums that are supposed to be heavier, it doesn't always match.

Album Rating: 2.0

"I find myself never returning to Affinity, the whole 'we're doing the 80s' shtick doesn't work for me, feels more like a gimmick to me unfortunately"



Yeah, it's too tacked on and just feels fake



I will always love the band's first three albums the most

Album Rating: 5.0

I'm probably just a weird sappy dude but for some reason the shit that has to do with his daughter in the story really gets me. "Canary Yellow" through "Only Stars" I'm pretty much covered in chills.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Canary Yellow became a favorite of mine on here

I am not sure how the story here works tbh, if you have a synopsis woth references to the songs somewhere, hit me up, I am genuinely interested

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

The new singles sound really promising. Nowhere near as forced as Prosthetic

Album Rating: 5.0

"I am not sure how the story here works tbh, if you have a synopsis with references to the songs somewhere, hit me up, I am genuinely interested"



I'll write one up at some point song by song. But my basic interpretation is...



Guy is comatose in mental hospital. Within his mind he is visited by a part of himself called the Cockroach (possibly result of subliminal experimentation from doctors using electroshock and drugs). The Cockroach gives him the power to take over the asylum, build a nation-wide cult, start a nuclear war, and eventually rise and fall from power.

Album Rating: 4.5

There seemingly is a bigger "Hakenverse" that it all could play into. This is the basic story as I understand it:



Vector- Patient 21 (guy from Visions??) ends up at Mountview mental asylum. Dr Rex does some torture and testing on P21, breaks him down. Seeing as he's 'special' Dr Rex does some very weird stuff, possibly because he foresees a nuclear apocalypse of sorts and tries to make people cockroaches to survive. P21 ends buried in the mountain and becomes a human/cockroach hybrid thanks to the good doc.



Virus- Dr Rex continues his horrific experiments, infecting people with the virus and his daughter Marigold tries to help solve the problem. Dr Rex builds a nuclear bomb to justify his insane experiments, Marigold leaves to develop a bacteriophage cure, and he uses the bomb. Everyone is turned into cockroach hybrids and follows P21 (the Cockroach King) to attack the ivory towers of Mountveiw and Dr Rex, who jumps off to his death and realizes that he is in a time loop and will be P21 in the next life or something

Album Rating: 5.0

Lol Cygnus you and I have two very different takes. I've heard the greater connection to other albums theory, but I don't buy it seeing as the guy from Visions is already stuck in a time loop. I've heard something else about Affinity trying to help stop the nuclear apocalypses but again, that album is very much inspired by the 80's whereas the events in Vector/Virus take place in the 50s/60s. So there are references to other albums but I don't think there is a story connection.



I know a lot of people theorize that Doctor Rex is a main player throughout the albums. I've always believed that he dies at the end of "Prosthetic" based on the music video and my interpretations of how "The Strain" starts with the line "One, one last life for us to live". But I'll type out my thoughts at one point and give my reasons. I could 100% be wrong about the story being more grounded in reality (the weirder elements being a fictitious hallucination of the Patient 21's).

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

really? nobody has posted the new lovebite music video that dropped 3 days ago?

bruuuuuh

https://youtu.be/MjqRKeTOTk8

Album Rating: 4.0

Yo this new song slaps. Production is also really nice

Album Rating: 4.0

waiting for the album! actually thought it was out today : (

Album Rating: 4.5

Prosthetic still rules yall still derp