The first line-up of London based band Haken was formed in 2007 and, despite some high profile showcase gigs in the same year, most notably selling out The Peel in Kingston, they also produced a three track demo a mere thirty-five minutes long, a theme that continues into the current album release.

In 2008 Linear Sphere/Anchorhead guitarist Charles Griffiths joined the band quickly followed by keyboardist Diego Tejeida to complete this album's line-up which also includes Richard Henshall (guitars and keyboards), Thomas MacLean (bass), Ross Jennings (vocals), and Raymond Hearne (drums). In the last year, Haken have gone on UK tours in support of cult metal bands King's X, Bigelf, and To-Mera.

The first thing to note for me about this album was, considering there are only seven tracks, it will take 88 minutes of your life to listen to it from beginning to end. The second is that in the band's own information they describe 'Aquarius' as the development of an epic concept, so you are left with the feeling straight away that these boys are serious musicians who take their art very seriously but what else should you expect from a virtuosic and eclectic progressive rock band.

There is no doubting that the members of Haken and acquaintances are extremely talented musicians and the styles of music that this album dips into ranges from progressive metal to jazz fusion, symphonic rock, folk, and a dash of classical but the main problem with all this is there is a lack of consistency in focus and coherency, despite there only being seven songs they have many parts and in a lot of cases these parts are songs in their own right. Another shame is that for such intelligent and experimental musicianship the lyrics are very basic and the story line running through the album doesn't hold much interest or you have forgotten what it's about anyway by the time you get to the next vocal part. There are a few Über Röck friendly moments when you feel the band were about to pick up the pace but these are for small moments in parts of songs.

It has to be remembered that this is a debut album by very young but very talented musicians and where their future lies I'm not sure, at best, on listening as a music fan, a cult band with a cult following; for you musicians out there I would imagine there is a whole lot more to them than I can hear; for music fans who live for the songs and not musicianship it feels like muddling through an exam paper that you hadn't revised enough for and only understand parts of what is laid out before you. The songs aren't very memorable but maybe because they are just too long and have too many different parts to them, parts of songs stand out and give me an interest, other parts are just slabs of blandness.

www.myspace.com/hakenmusic