Haven

Ormir

Ormir

Senior Member
Oct 11, 2001
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Espoo, Finland
I got this album yesterday, and I wasn't expecting much. My previous DT experience was limited to Skydancer/Of Chaos... The Gallery, and Projector (plus some Minds I mp3's), and having thouroughly enjoyed Projector, and reading Stanne dropped his clean vocals and returned to a more generic style had put me off Haven for a long time. How wrong I was proved. I was blasted away by "The Wonders at your Feet", and after being pummeled into amazement by the rest of the album I came to the conclusion that Haven fucking rocks! I'm ready to say its the best Dark Tranquillity album I've listened to so far. What do you people think of Haven?
 
I'm suprised I haven't got any flack from puritans screaming "Gallery is best!". Guess they haven't joined the new forum yet...

I think the best element of Haven is the great keyboards. They really add depth and texture to the sound, and blend into it beautifuly, unlike in Projector where they seemed more like an afterthought. I think Stanne's clean vocals sounded great on Projector, but I think the constant slow, clean choruses detracted somewhat from the intensity of the album. Not to mention the weird moments just before a fast part where the music just seems to whirl about for ages, going nowhere (I hope you know what I mean). In Haven they removed these annoying tendencies and took a more powerful and "metallish" stance to songwriting. I do miss the clean vocals, and find it strange Haven doesen't really aknowledge some of the advancements the band made in the previous album. With a few more Projector elements Haven would be truly awesome.
 
Originally posted by _Transparent_
yeah its good, and im happy as my version has the ThereIn video in it too, although i think they all do. :D
Click to expand...

Well, if I remember correctly, some of the CD's lacked that video - there was some complaining on the old forum about that and Niklas said that it was a fault of the American distributor or something. Can't remember it very well (as I can't remember about anything very well).

About Haven, I shared Ormir's initial reaction to it - the amazing amount of energy in those songs put me in awe. Sadly, however, that didn't last too long and after a while I had to admit Haven didn't contain the same endurance as the other DT albums. Great it is still, but not as great as I had initially thought.

I expect the new album to be a bit more harder to "get into" and at the same time a bit more enduring.

-Villain
 
again just what i thought. projector was so fathomless, so deep in some parts and haven was great in the beginning, but projetor still has its depths for me and haven... imho the songwriting has become a bit TOO compact on haven and i deeply hope he will sing again on the next one. blablablablurgh
np: depeche mode - ultra (this one goes out to those who didn't like Day To End:) )
 
Well Day To End just kicked major ass, but I think some guys weren't prepared for that song, I partly understand.
I love Projector but I think it was live some kind of test, trying to go somewhere not thoroughly defined.
But in the case of Haven you can hear that the band is so mature, eveything is so "in the right place" It amazed me how good it was when I bought it, and still I think it's their best album so far and that's really difficult because The Mind's I was so marvelous that I never thought they could beat that one :)
fv
 
I think Haven is a very good album, though it isn't really DT's best. It is a very catchy album, but unfortunately the songs are all a bit on the shorter side. The usage of keyboards/synths on that album is very well done, though.

and about:
I'm suprised I haven't got any flack from puritans screaming "Gallery is best!". Guess they haven't joined the new forum yet...
Click to expand...

I think most Dark Tranquillity fans are open minded music listeners, most of the Dark Tranquillity fans actually seem to like Projector and Haven. But still, the Gallery is actually my favourite albums... it's a tie with Projector though, both albums are extremely good IMO.
 
Reading through the lyrics book, I don't think the lyrics are quite the same calibre as in Projector, which is saying more about how good they were in Projector than how bad they are in Haven.

It's weird nobody's mentioned Skydancer/Of Chaos... it's very different from the rest of the stuff, but good all the same. And the lyrics are great, probably my favourite DT lyrics besides Projector.

BTW, does anybody know the deal with the U.S version of Skydancer/Of Chaos...? Does it differ from the European edition besides the cover? Is it worth getting if one already has the original?
 
The Gallery is the best! :D

Seriously though, Haven totally blew my mind last year. The songs sound epic while still being rather short and catchy in a weird way. And the keyboards... yummy.

Haven made it into my top five releases of last year.
 
I'm also one of those who were blown away by haven...I only knew Projector before...

but I totally agree with the following statement:

a very good album, though it isn't really DT's best. It is a very catchy album, but unfortunately the songs are all a bit on the shorter side.
Click to expand...

It's really a catchy album, but because of the compact songwriting you can get tired of it after some time of constant listening. If the songs were slightly more complex and longer, it would probably have been the best release of 2000. I hope the next one will be a mixture between The Gallery (complex song-structures), Mind's I (catchyness & feeling) and Haven. IMHO the vocals on Haven are Stanne's best up till now...
 
hehehehe many things to reply here ;P

IMHO the vocals on Haven are Stanne's best up till now...
Click to expand...

ok, may be Stanne's, but not DT's, IMHO best lyrics for Dark Tranquillity are on Mind's I (specially insanity's crescendo) and also the masterpiece Shadow Duet :)

BTW, does anybody know the deal with the U.S version of Skydancer/Of Chaos...? Does it differ from the European edition besides the cover? Is it worth getting if one already has the original?
Click to expand...

I got the two versions, I'm European so I got the U.S. version afterwards of course, and It's worth getting! It's the same track list, same production same everything but the artwork of the bootleg and the cd itself it's WAY much better, so I didn't thought too much and got it 8 months ago :)

NP: Eternal Tears Of Sorrow - A Virgin and a Whore
 
Yeah, in spite of several awesome songs and my appreciation for Mikael's clean vox, Projector seems like a somewhat flawed experiment while Haven is a more self-actualized and consistent work, songs like Indifferent Suns and At Loss For Words being something completely different amidst a genre saturated with imitators...
 
ive seen but a few ppl that gets projector its not that big of an experiment is just a sentimental introspective album and its DT at its best because is the album i feel they where the most free and uninhibid and it really shows in their music a lot...they can do all matter of amazing arrengements on haven and put out a masterpiece like on each record but no record besides projector has that amount of sentimental feeling in the music caressing and dancing among with the amazing lyrics...its just beyond music its poetry...one of a kind
 
The keyboard work on haven is just amazing. If you don't believe me just crank 'At Loss For Words'.

One thing i find about The Gallery is that some of the songs sound he same.
 
After nearly forgetting about the album for a while, I listened to Haven again a few times in the last days... It is a really great album indeed, and I think the keys do really fit in with the album, though I wouldn't say it's my favourite Dark Tranquillity album (I like Projector and The Gallery more). Projector has a bit more really great moments than Haven, though Haven is more consistent.

But now, I am kinda busy to listen to Blind Guardian's new song - And Then There Was Silence... simply the best song BG ever did...
 
Yet i will do so one more time, forget audiogalaxy, forget morpheus, forget any p2p crap: IRC its the answer. Seriously go to www.mirc.com enter to undernet or dalnet networks get the channel list and join those with the word metal on it.
Im enjoying the new rhapsody, i enjoyed haven months before its official relase, etc. ( ok that one might be a little controvertial but i still went out to buy the digipak as soon as i could, and most mp3 leechers do so that remains in everyone conscience if they have one )
 
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