The Mountain (Haken album)
| The Mountain | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Haken | ||||
| Released | 2 September 2013 | |||
| Recorded | 2013 | |||
| Genre | Progressive metal, progressive rock | |||
| Length | 62:05 | |||
| Label |
Inside Out Music Century Media Records (distribution) |
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| Haken chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metal Underground |  |
| Ghost Cult Magazine |   |
| Sea of Tranquility |  |
| The Monolith |  |
| Angry Metal Guy | |
The Mountain is the third studio album by British progressive metal band Haken. It was released on 2 September 2013 through Inside Out Music. The first single from the album, "Atlas Stone", was released on 17 July. It is the last album to feature bassist Thomas MacLean.
Band members Richard Henshall and Charlie Griffiths said of the album:
To us, 'The Mountain' is symbolic of our journey as a band, but also reflects the wider trials and tribulations of life. Lyrically, we've done a lot of soul searching which has given the album an emotional depth that we're sure listeners will really relate to, whatever personal mountain they are climbing.
Musically, the new songs feel rawer and more emotional than anything we've created in the past. All the essential elements of our sound are still there but have been delivered in a more gritty and focused style. We've really pushed ourselves in all areas and truly believe that this album is a step up from any of our previous work...
Unlike Aquarius and Visions, for which vocalist Ross Jennings wrote all the lyrics, The Mountain features contributions by every band member. On a 2016 interview, Jennings said:
I'm still not sure if the rest of the band fully understood what I was trying to achieve lyrically with Aquarius and Visions, which I think left them quite cold and therefore they couldn’t relate to those albums so well. If you ask them today, I still don't think they could explain the stories or the themes. So when it came to writing the Mountain, everyone wanted to get involved with that part of the process [...]
According to keyboardist Diego Tejeida, the band "didn't set any boundaries for how we wanted the album to sound". He added that "The Mountain was tangibly influenced by 70's music, at the same time we threw in some prog-unrelated influences like: ambient, soul, jazz, 80′s synthpop, minimalism or even those Glitch Hop Drums on 'Because It's There'."
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