Live Review: Haken at The Garage in London 23/10/2014

Score: 7/10

Haken are undoubtedly one of the most loved proggiest of prog bands around. They have a strong fan base and a lot of support from other musicians – one of them Mike Portnoy. They are currently touring to promote their new EP Restoration which actually contains old tunes that have been revived but are far from being as enchantingly beautiful as the newer tracks from their CD The Mountain.

Norwegian band Leprous warmed up the audience at The Garage with their incredible set of vocal harmonies and metal rhythms. I found them interesting but not on the long run. The guys are musically skilled and their leader’s soprano voice represented the real surprise of the whole evening; their songs, though, are definitely too similar and offer very little. While they delivered great music with their lighter tunes, their dark songs were too dark and too long to keep me awake or even interested for longer than a couple of minutes.

After the way-too-long set by Leprous, Haken made sure they delivered what they had to, showing off great musicianship. Unfortunately, I’m not sure whether the acoustic was very bad or there was a problem with the mixer or it was simply a lack of vocal power, Ross Jenning’s voice could hardly be heard. The moment everyone in the audience was waiting for arrived when the first notes of Cockroach King filled the speakers, as the band embraced the madness of this great song and delivered the best performance of the whole evening.