Composer/Musician Reacts to Haken - Falling Back To Earth (REACTION!!!)
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Falling Back To Earth
ORIGINAL VIDEO // • Falling Back To Earth
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The Mountain is legitimately in the top 5 best progressive metal albums for me tbh. Haken's masterpiece.
i'd just take the "prog metal" out of this sentece.. top 5 of any genres....
I’ll say definitely Hakens magnum opus
The Mountain is great, but I don't see why everyone thinks it's Haken's best. Visions blows it out of the water for my tastes.
I think Haken infused the traditional prog metal sound with English quirkiness, and since Dream Theater were the golden standard at one point, every band in the genre will naturally sound like them initially, before figuring out a unique approach. Haken found it for sure on the record following The Mountain.
Definitely agree with you here. They have a more “American” style mixed with some of their crazy 70-80’s inspired Prog.
It’s cool to compare and contrasts this style to Scandinavian Prog like Leprous, Pain of Salvation, Arcturus, enslaved.
Yeah, if Rush is 1.0, Dream Theater was 2.0, Haken is now 3.0 in my opinion.
I find Haken more superior than DT, by composition standards. DT is more predictable and playing safe!
@@meanangel8114 They are now, but at one point they were producing the best prog metal albums hands down. Systematic Chaos was the album that saw them become predictable for me, but every album before that was outstanding (except for falling into infinity, but we don't talk about that record).
@@RockBoBsteRMusic Symphony X beats DT! imho. Have to state this bc SX are so underrated.
Richard Henshall ( the man who did all the first Haken albums and The Mountain ) is a fucking genious. Check him out. "Lunar Room" is amazing.
Thats my cousin
I am very surprised at the lack of Cockroach King suggestions.
It's one of their more "out there" songs, not unlike certain parts of this one. Except, while this one is more dark & dreamy, Cockroach King is much more weird & goofy (with some smooth jazz thrown in there).
I feel like it's one of their most popular songs, like top 5 maybe. It's a must-do, imo.
I know this is 10 month old comment, but this may explain why CK not suggested. czcams.com/video/eJwBKxm_11c/video.html around 1:02:30 he did it during a live stream.
Nice, glad to see Haken on your channel again! They're one of my favourite bands, close behind BTBAM.
This album, The Mountain, is the one to start with once you retire Haken from the channel. All of their albums are amazing, but The Mountain is just a little extra magical.
hey tundra
*_C E L E S T I A L E L I X I R_*
That song had been on repeat for weeks when I discovered Haken.
Yep! My fav, too. Epic lovesong/rollercoaster
Always nice to see Haken! Again I will recommend "Cocoon" by Haken guitarist Richard Henshall, the entire album is a must-listen!
Yeah I second a Pupa/Cocoon reaction. That album is too good!
The Cocoon is on another level. That is the future of prog rock. Twisted Shadows and Lunar Room are the freshest thing I've heard from the last 10 years.
@@swingonthespiral Absolutely!
I love the chorus at the end. It sounds even more epic to me
The cymbal fill in the beginning always hits the hardest for me. The way it softly flows right back into the jazzy chords is TOP TIER.
I think the chorus at the end works well for me because they stepped it up to another level with the powerful horn arrangement joining in, a very triumphant conclusion
The horns at the end of 'Somebody' sound HUUUGE. Of all the amazing parts in The Mountain, that finale just mops everything else for me.
NONSTOPPURPLEFORCE
Cannot unhear
Loved their new albom. Should definitely check it out!
i second this
Even though some of this felt very disjointed to me I had a great time - some really fun ideas in there and it had me bobbing along to it. These guys are super talented.
I discovered Haken around the time they released this album. I really loved their first three, with this album being my favorite. I've enjoyed what they've released since then but I haven't been compelled to go back through their discog. This might inspire me to do soon. Of all the new-ish prog rock/metal bands I think them, Thank You Scientist, and Caligula's Horse are the kings of the mountain. I kinda wish you'd listened to Cockroach King, though. Such a fun, weird, unpredictable track (very Gentle Giant inspired).
It's very difficult for any modern prog metal band to avoid the influence of Dream Theater. Dream Theater are basically The Beatles of prog metal. Yeah, there was prog metal before Dream Theater (Queensryche, Fates Warning, etc.), but DT basically took it to the next level and modernized it. They could be as heavy as Metallica, as complex as Yes, and virtuosic as Rush. Nobody before them really had that combination. I'd definitely say that most post-DT prog metal has struggled with how to bring something original to the genre, and I think what the best bands have done is look towards other influences. In Haken, eg, you can hear a lot of Gentle Giant.
Personal fav from them at the moment is Drowning in the Flood off their Aquarius album. Definite recommend!
Also Karnivool - Deadman
Vool Vool Vool Vool!
YES, BOTH! You mention two of my all-time favorites here xD
My favorite too.
Deadman is just a God Tier song.
Yes! Happy you came to that one finally :D and thanks to the requestor! It's from my favorite Haken Album and I know every squeak in any corner of that song! So it's nice that you give me a 'fresh' impression, hearing it through your ears, in a way... Next Haken stop: Carousel 8]
Been listening to Haken for a few months now and always thought they rocked, but this is the song that's really made me fall in love with them. Idk if you've done Puzzle box but it has similar vibes
I think the comparison to groups like Dream Theater, Symphony X, and Queensryche are unavoidable because those early prog metal bands were such an inspiration to so many who followed, they represent a sort of evolutionary bottleneck in the genre that it took some time to work its way out of. And Dream Theater, especially, loomed so large for two decades, and really ushered the genre forward in a way that less mainstream acts like Opeth didn't really have the opportunity to do.
you should check out puzzle box sometime. it's off their album vectors, which is probably my favorite of theirs
That and veil are like my favorite back to back songs ever I think
Recommendations:
Moon Safari - A Kid Called Panic
The Flower Kings - Stardust We Are
Also, Dream Theater definitely was one of if not the foremost pioneers of this kind of prog metal, so you are definitely correct to say that these later bands sound like them.
Oh, I see you are man of culture.
Moon Safari - Crossed the Rubicon is up for vote for the random rumble poll so hopefully we get that!
Two fantastic songs there.
Man in my opinion, the architect smashes falling back to earth. I definantly would recommend checking that out as well.
They are both great though
Thats one of the best songs ever. Especially because they included Einar, my favourite vocalist ever
@@martinjakab einar is inhumanly good
Humm to me The architect definitely is their weakest epic but to everyone their taste i guess
@@kiritobi I mean my favorite epic is visions, but the architect is really great as well
Haken are quite up front with their influences - they even stress them sometimes and Dream Theater is certainly neither the oldest or youngest band that shows influential with Haken! Yes, King Crimson, Leprous and Devin Townsend are good examples besides DT.
Aw yisss! FBTE is one of the best Haken Songs. When it kicks into that heavy section before the chorus reprise at the end, it hits me different.
Speaking on the final chorus I agree, since the following song on the album is a song of lamenting the “death” (as death embraces) after the fall. I wish the soft tone was the outro, rather than the reprise.
This was a while back, and you did say you'd reapproach the song with lyrics on, but I still feel I'd like to add my interpretation to what you feel is tonal inconsistency (narratively speaking).
So, in the first verse, the protagonist feels he is better tham those around him, and is being held back by them.
'Against all odds, I long to be free'
'I'll defeat all the people who stepped on me'
He is also dreaming of soaring through the sky, and leaving them all behind for good, as shown in the first chorus.
'Soaring theough the sky,
Free from your burdens'
'I won't be back again'
In the second verse, he has finally made some wings, and bursting with bluster and arrogance. He plans to scale a mountain and take off.
'When my name becomes tomorrow's news'
'I'll scale the summit like an unstoppable force'
'With iron wings I will prove my worth to you all'
Now, in the second chorus, he has realised those dreams. But, like icarus, he flies too close to the sun, and *then* is when he falls back to Earth.
'Too close to the flames,
Ambition has burned me
With my wings ablaze,
I'm falling back to Earth'
After this, when you identified the song had some gravity, he is ashamed and afraid. The world has changed during his adventure, and he no longer recognises it.
'Crestfallwn, my head is bowed'
'Something seems different now'
'Has humanity fossilised?'
After realising all this, he reflects regretfully and mournfully upon his journey, and that is the reason (in my opinion) for the final chorus.
Also, I truly loved your analysis of this song, and I just thought I'd add some of my own thoughts.
Subscribed :)
YES MORE HAKEN LETS GOOOOOOO
Well, The Mountain is a concept album. It makes more sense if you listen to the whole album.
That aside, I personally think this album is still their best, more coherent if you compare to their previous album Aquarius. More of a story that feels real compared to their following works.
My favourite was Vector for a long time, but now I feel like that Affinity is their best
Not a huge Haken fan, but i do really dig this track. when I saw them open for Devin Townsend early this year (yes really live show in 2020 haha) they played a song called Cockroach King that really caught my ear that is also from this album. Im gonna have to give this album a full listen
agreed, The Mountain is their best.
I love this band very much, but it took me a long time to say this, as i wasn't digging them too much for a long time
You forgot Visions between Aquarius and The Mountain.
@@CheesecakeMilitia Correct, thanks
I think Haken leans into the Dream Theater like sound. One of the songs on Aquarius has a riff that sounds identical to a DT riff and they do it with duck sounds. Sounds like an homage to me but I'm not certain.
Yeah but Haken is better. Imo
Another neat prog banger, definitely getting into this band
"melodic line was written, not brcause of necessity, but because they wanted to use that time" - isn't it applied to 99,999999999% of prog bands? :)
You gotta check out Cockroach king by them.
Just stumbled across your channel. Great job on this and I learned what a hocket is! I love hearing composers break down progressive music. It's fascinating to me. Sub for sure!
Awesome! Welcome, welcome. If you like this more analytical approach to music and enjoy the community, I also invite you to join the Discord community for the channel. The link is in the description of every video and we have some awesome people who enjoy all sorts of music.
@@CriticalReactions It's probably just me being an old guy but I can't seem to find your Discord link. It's probably right in front of me but I'm not seeing it.
No worries. Here's the link discord.gg/sxfwedy43h
edit: I went back and noticed that this comment was on a video that existed before the Discord went public and thus the link wasn't in the descriptions yet.
Man, you need to listen to Haken - Cockroach King :) Not their best song, but very fun.
Papelillo - Plini
Chorus at the end is story. Man wants to climb the mountain, the mountain being a metaphor for God hood or something, people scoff at him, he wants to escape humanity. Eventually he does, but he gets too close to the sun and falls back to earth. He realizes that he never should have left. Then he notices that much time has passed and the world he knew is no more, the beasts are the new masters, and he decides to escape and commit suicide.
More like the Story of Ikarus.
"When did we switch back to 5?" brought such a big goofy prog nerd smile to my face
I love the clarity of their guitar riffs. I just love good riffs.
Do more haken (the architect or cockroach king, which is their most famous song according to CZcams views)
You won't regret.
This song pairs really well with pareidolia
Well, we are looking at the band that started playing circus music in their prog. First three album are incredibly unique.
You should check out Unexpect - Fables of the Sleepless Empire, that's the album. Pretty much any song, or the whole thing. I'm also a composer and they do some really out there compositions. It's like metal, prog, film score, atonal & tonal with some out of nowhere cultural changes all mixed together. I'm sad they broke up after that album cause most of the stuff they did before i didn't care for. But they hit some sort of pocket that made them extremely unique with that album.
If you do a reaction, do Unfed Pendulum.
Falling back to Earth is my favorite off that album.
Ha, ok i just found your Unexpect reaction. Watching that Next.
The Mr. Bungle influence is strong with this one... and i love it!
I commented on the Affinity album. There was a Huge shift on the band's tone. I like the new, more compressed sound, with the in-your-face guitars and bass. But I miss the sound of the Mountain.
Haken’s album Affinity is my absolute favorite. The Architect or 1985 are my personal favorites.
The band IQ is a bit like Haken. Very underestimated band. Resistance is a recent album and there is a live concert of that album A show of resistance. Dark matter is also a very nice album.
If you like complex progressive rock: Gentle Giant.
I don’t know if you know Ayreon. Start with the song: the day that the world brakes down. The do the two live concerts. A lot of very well known musicians participated. See Wikipedia.
A LOT of modern prog bands get compared to Dream Theater. It is not just you making that connection haha
They don't call them Between the Dream Theater and Me for nothing!
Damn
I've always said Haken is like if Dream theater and Caligula's Horse had a baby and then BTBaM and Leprous had a baby and those 2 babys had a baby = Haken
Gotta check out Richard Henshall's solo stuff. Twisted Shadows or Lunar Room
Crystallised and Visions are two amazing epics of theirs, and Cockroach King is another really solid one that you should check out!
I checked out Cockroach King during a livestream. I've been trying to get this livestream made public for non-live watching but several of the songs are flagged by copywrite bots so it's a battle I've been in all weekend. Hopefully I'll find some way to get this think watchable by the end of the week.
@@CriticalReactions how did this situation pan out? Is there any place i could watch that reaction?
11:59 that section was actually in 5/4 haha
I wonder what musician would say tonaly inconsistent. What does that even mean?
The more wacky parts remind me of Gentle Giant. They could be quite heavy and then throw in a xylophone break...
Holographic Universe by Scar Symmetry pweease☺🤘
Vektor- recharging the void. progressive death thrash 😆I dont know what to really call it. Its going to surprise you.
The genre is known as technical thrash metal, or tech thrash for short
@@Bikonito sure
If you want a fun time signature song you should check out Dream Theater Dance of Eternity were it changes time signatures 100 plus times in 6 minutes.
Dream theater is the first so its not about your entry point. All 3 bands u mentioned are definitely inspired by DT but have their own sound.
Howdy there pardner
That's the most unique 'hi' I've seen today!
even composers dont know what theyre talking about sometimes
I agree with you: the ending was a little unnecessary. I did like it, as it was really powerful but I believe it was a section that would have fit better a little before the end.
The next song, on the album, is very soft so it is extremely jarring album-wise. I am probably missing the point, which sucks.
dude he talked over "when my name becomes tomorrow's news" lol sad day
ah yah!
Hi
I honestly wasn't expecting someone to actually do this but it makes so much sense to be you.
Hello!
I guess you can say they sold out with new albums... Before, most people agreed in comments and forums that - at the time new album Vector is different path from their previous work, but now that they are gaining new fans- because of the new sound, those fans are having the polar opposite opinions from old fans... Its sad, but at least we know where they stand as a band... We know not to buy new stuff and go to live, but we still have that golden material from their period of creativity. Still my top 5 favourite albums are the first 3 Haken albums and 2 Tool ones
My point of view on that is changing a sound is the way a band evolves and matures. As with any experimentation there is going to be some failures, and unfortunately that might mean an album ends up with some songs that aren't so great (though hopefully the bad ideas get left on the cutting room floor). But the end result, where the experimentation leads to, is usually worth it. A modern example I like to point to is Bring Me the Horizon. They went from deathcore to pop. But their recent sound is a culmination of all of the styles they've played in over the years and it's better for it.
Now that assumes the band is changing their sound for personal reasons and not monetary ones. If Haken is legitimately changing their sound by chasing trends and hoping to attract a larger audience to sell more albums/merch then there might not be anything learned here other than to adapt with popular trends. In that case I can only be happy for them and hope they're goals are being achieved. I might not like their new direction but that's fine. Honestly there is too much music out there anyways 😅
Should have been Cockroach King, the absolutely best Haken track there is!
How long have you been listening to haken? I only ask this because I thought this too for a couple of years but now to me there are plenty of tracks of theirs better, this one being one of them
Hi
Hey there!