Jazz Singer reacts to Haken Falling Back to Earth - WOW!

Tonight was the turn of progressive metal band Haken and their song Falling Back to Earth. Where do i even begin?? It was difficult to react to as there was so much going on and i loved all of it! :D
The Jazzy beginning, the weird electronic 80's sounding part towards the middle, the complete flip onto it's head for the second half..... it was all great. I must say though the first half was by far my favourite.
This band has really caught my attention. I'd love to know more about them! Let me know in the comments section what you think i need to know about Haken!
#Haken #Fallingbacktoearth #progmetal #prog
Would you like to join the NorthernEar community, vote for which songs i do next or even get a guaranteed reaction to any song of your choice?
/ northernear

[@ThomasJ_Music]

Check out my favourite Metal Reactions from all over KZbin kzbin.info/aero/PLhHrgMNSTIpSkN1bTnm6WQOX85-PY83b4

[@eglathren]

"I'm feeling like I'm playing Nintendo" yes, videogames are the natural habitat of prog music xD

[@jimit.4220]

fr even with those literal mario sfx in messiah complex

[@johndavis9196]

Haken is a collection of master musicians that create complex and intricate music. I had the good fortune to see them live a couple of times before the pandemic shut everything down and to see them perform this music with the same precision and musicality is truly impressive. The drummer, Ray Hearn, is exceptional and performs flawlessly.

[@vikramsubramaniam6699]

This song is basically about the tale of icarus- how someone wished for too much, flew too close to the sun and thus, “with his wings ablaze, fell back to earth.” Edit- the first song is about the rise, and the second half is about the fall, hence the change in pace and sound.

[@davidschwartz5614]

4:49 *visibly vibing*

[@paravarium]

Haha I guess I'm pretty obligated to chime in hard here. Haken, Leprous, and Caligula's Horse are in my eyes the kings of modern prog metal that's mostly all clean vocals. They get tabled together so much. I'd say Leprous is the most dramatic, Haken the most quirky, and Caligula is just damn buttery smooth. Caligula's Horse have really smooth transitions and tasteful ideas that rarely get the wanking critique. They make longer compositions that still feel like the same song the whole time and don't jolt your senses with randomness. Leprous can be more daring but they're really all about the ominous slow burn that sizzles hard. Haken is arguably the most popular and bombastic. Historically full of quirkiness, range, and surprises. I love them, but have to say prefer the smoothness of Caligula just a notch higher. The last 3 haken albums have actually had much of the quirkiness dialed back a lot until this year's album. I feel I actually like them more than these earlier albums but I realise that's blasphemy for many fans.

[@Kelly.sapphire]

Totally agree with you. Those 3 in a concert would be awesome! Saw Haken and Leprous together. I tend to like the heavier Haken stuff and love all Leprous and Caligulas Horse.

[@zacharychevrier-ferreira6993]

For current stuff totally! Leprous’s early stuff was pretty damn quirky as well to be fair, and I would certainly say they’ve earned the moniker of ‘heaviest’ of the three due to their early material as well. Much more harsh vocals and blackened metal parts, ex. Waste of Air off of Bilateral

[@meanangel8114]

Dude, try Spirituality and Distortion by Igorrr. I promise you - you are going to be blown away!

[@frog382]

New Haken albums sound like they run out of inspiration so they turned to more commercial arrangements and sound. I dont hate it, its better than most popular prog metal but i dont like it either.

[@jimit.4220]

@@frog382 what a bunch of bs, how is messiah complex or nil by mouth in any way commercial

[@carlotingucci4391]

Check haken's song "the architect" if you want your mind blown

[@bandoupthebung]

100%

[@meanangel8114]

Check out Haken's Crystallized, mate. The most epic thing I've ever heard! This and Visions, right behind.

[@lorddaikon]

I cant even rank them. They are all so good. The new ones are a bit more straight forward, i definetly liked this old idea-stuffed songs more. Hopefully they'll come back to it, now the trilogy is conpleted.

[@Simeneri]

@@meanangel8114 Crystallized, The Arhitect and Falling Back to Earth are their top 3 imo.

[@victorstefanovsky6902]

Haken and Leprous are the two best newer generation prog bands

[@bandoupthebung]

Below by Leprous has some excellent jazz elements to it :)

[@TheWares52]

Haken are the best...

[@palantir135]

Isn’t this song about Icarus? I discovered Haken and Opeth and a lot of other bands on the review channel of Jim Newstead. I love Haken. It’s a mix of progressive rock and metal, quite complicated music and good singing. A bit like King Crimson or Gentle Giant but then heavier. Not every song is like this. Just listen to a whole album. The newest is called Virus. IQ is a more or less similar band which I can recommend also.

[@Aivri]

The album has a lot of connections and allusions to mythology. The tale of Icarus (this song), Atlas stone, even the album's name (Mt. Olympus), along with others. IMHO this album is one of Haken's best works so far.

[@lucasnunes8817]

I discovered Haken while I was listening one DT song, and the Spotify autoplay took me to Pareidolia. What a insane experience.

[@palantir135]

Lucas Nunes I can recommend also the band IQ.

[@meanangel8114]

Two best bands, for me. Listen (and you just have to) then, to Igorrr (new album), Jinjer, Spiritbox, Native Construct, Leprous, Nightwish, Unleash the Archers. There's a whole bunch more!

[@palantir135]

@@meanangel8114 of course I do Nightwish. The rest I’ve heard of. I’ll give them a try. Do you know Ayreon, Avantasia, Dream Theater, Scarlet Stories, Anathema, Wardruna, Heilung?

[@omargonzalez4169]

The same melody line played in different ways, as a result you get multiple genres in one song.

[@Tintop]

their best album imo

[@fartvader84yearsago8]

This song: *plays NorthernEar: *Visible confusion

[@ThomasJ_Music]

😂

[@glyngasson8450]

Isn't this about Icarus, or am I taking it too literally. Could you please react to Cockroach King and 1985 by Haken as well. Loving these reactions

[@Opranius]

Really loved your detailled and honest reaction, nice video!! :)

[@ThomasJ_Music]

Thanks for the kind comment Jules! Glad to have you with us!

[@ugg10video76]

Nice one, one of my favourite bands. Also check out Nova Collective, a spin off from Haken with a couple of members in both. As said, Leprous and Caligulas horse are worth listening along with Plini, Tesseract and Periphery. There are a number a others that may suit including Our Dogs are Astronauts, Between the buried and me and Scale the Summit (instrumental). In terms of this song, I think it is an interpretation of the Icarus fable/story.

[@bartolomeotucci4653]

What a banger

[@BigNeilbug]

Nice one, I told you you'd like them mate🤟👍

[@frankardos4211]

been interested in this band.......thx friend

[@vikramsubramaniam6699]

You should check out songs from one of the later releases, vector- especially puzzle box and host. The use of harmony in this album and especially these songs will blow you away.

[@JimmyRJump]

I can defenitely picture a smoky nightclub harbouring a motley crew of patrons with one leg in the gutter, coming to get their nightly vitamins because the tab is generous, against a backdrop of music from talented but struggling musicians who aren't far from the same gutter the barflies have a leg in.

[@PaulHilburger]

Haken rocks

[@mish91]

Love that sound! The waaa waaa sound 😂👌

[@keenanbartlome8153]

This song reminds me of the story of icarus.

[@RyanxDunn]

I'd think it's safe to say the song is actually about him, if not using his story to tell the story of this song.

[@danielamaral8225]

I recommended music 1985 from Haken

[@94djanek]

Please react to that☺ Leaves eyes-Chain of Golden horn

[@wardka]

Thank you for this. I've had that album on my want list for some time, but now -- I'm not sure. I'm an old school prog head and this has all the right elements. They just seem a little scrambled and frenetic. I think it needs more cohesion. Maybe a few more listens would pull it all together for me, but my nerves have trouble with the spastic fragmentation, at least these days. I think I'll hold off a bit.

[@henningseidt8402]

I can understand your reaction, but only as singled out to this track. If you listen to the album as a whole, you won't find it as "scrambled and frenetic" anymore because this song is the peak of the whole record and combines several thematic and compository aspects of the whole album. Listen to the album in one go (as you should always do with good records) and you will experience a 70 minutes long adventure of smoothness, cohesion, epicness and musical plafulness that is hard to find anywhere else.

[@wardka]

@@henningseidt8402 I can understand that. One wouldn't want to take the last few minutes of Yes' Gates of Delirium, for example, out of context.

[@johncassidy3071]

To fully appreciate what Haken is doing in one ( "video game") section, you would need to be more familiar with Gentle Giant.

[@danielamaral8225]

More Haken, plis Man. Nice Reaction!

[@hfitzpatrick1863]

Iccarus

[@frog382]

You need good headphones... Its so sad to see the majority of musicians using beats or jbl... Your northern ears deserve better 🦻

[@stephanweinberger]

@8:00 "is it about someone escaping?" ... well the song is called 'falling back to earth', the lyrics mention 'iron wings' with which he will prove his 'worth to you all', and the 'wont be laughing when he's soaring through the sky'.... of which mythical figure does this remind us? :-)

[@Syzygy77]

Wait, your flying too close! Come back down.