This Haven are a very special Swedish quartet whose music takes the best qualities of melodic metal, along with some prog, stoner, and hardcore, and distills them into a highly original style all their own. Creativity, ambition, and an exceptional understanding of sound dynamics inform their choices in crafting this blend. On their first demo, "Disexist" (co-produced and mixed by Dan Swanö), they demonstrated in just 3 songs the heights of heaviness, sophistication, and versatility of which they are capable: "Lupine," a relentless head-banging number, the majestically atmospheric, intense title track, and the soaringly melodic yet still very heavy "The Fallen."
Just recently they completed their possibly even more brilliant follow-up, "My Year Zero," once again with Dan Swanö co-producing/mixing, and this time playing a role in the recording as well. This demo-in-name-only offers six superb songs, expertly recorded and brilliantly performed. Patrik Karlsson and Tobbe Jacobsson's beyond-crunchy guitars assault the listener in unpredictable ways, with variations in force, duration, and angle, while Nicklas Keijser's polyrhythmic drumming (so complex it often sounds like two guys playing simultaneously) and Johan Berglund's intricate bass lines propel This Haven's power. Contributing to the overall feeling of aggressiveness and melodic beauty, Patrik Karlsson's vocals are assertive and smooth, with nice touches of grittiness. This is music with a distinctive heavy/melodic sound and the tightest, thickest, edgiest groove.
If you like opening tracks that create instant tension, you'll love "The Itch!" A looping, twitchy bass establishes delicious unsettlement that only increases with the addition of barrelling guitars, in a jagged riff that perfectly mirrors the prodding of an insatiable craving, "the everlasting itch" that makes you "twist and turn." At one point the sonic attack gives way to a quiet, dreamy interlude, suggesting the momentary assuagement of the itch, only to resume in an intensified form, guitars, bass and drums battering like off-kilter hammer strokes: temporary satisfaction leads only to "increased obsession."
There's no let-up with the next track, the ultra-tight "Run Out of Tears," in which heavily grooving, plunging rhythms form a hypnotic undertow that duels with the martial aural attacks of a heavy marching beat, featuring a machine-gun bass drum, and stacatto guitar work. The two moods are blended in extremely crunchy guitar parts that somehow undulate, jab, and strut simultaneously, and a strong vocal that sounds like quiet shouting. In the middle of the song the contrasting tones struggle for dominance in a long instrumental passage: following a crisp percussive wallop, a great, twisty guitar solo casts a seductive spell, which is broken by the inexorable force of a heavy guitar/drums assault. Using striking images to present a clear-eyed view of the world that is bleak but not melodramatically so, this song should make Maynard James Keenan wish he could have covered it on APC's politically-themed "eMotive."
The demo's centerpiece is its title track, a masterpiece of subtle intensity with another great solo bass opening and a powerful vocal. This is a smoldering song with a strong emotional quality and explosive building-moments, reflecting the song's expression of emancipation and rebirth from restraint and futility. The refrain is especially electrifying, as the music swells and the line "My chains break, and I breathe again" is repeated with passionate assertiveness. This song shows vocalist Patrik Karlsson at his gritty and aggressive best. And he is only beginning to explore his considerable talents as a singer. Versatility is one of the hallmarks of his style, and both of This Haven's demos abound with moments that inspire a craving to hear more of what he can do. The way he sounds in the spoken lines in "Run Out of Tears" and at the beginning of "The Following," for example, make me want to hear him sing an entire song in some kind of cross between the two, a crawl-right-under-your-skin, deep, raspy whisper, prominently mixed.
"The Following" and "Reduced Below Nothing" may be the catchiest songs on the demo, but this infectiousness doesn't mean they're any less intense or lyrically weighty than the other songs. "The Following" explores the frantic search for meaning and divine guidance. Loaded with ambiguity, the provocative lyrics imply that creeds offer only "hollow truth," and that the urge to believe ultimately leads to doom--in one form or another. With a corkscrew-assault bass/guitar opening, the song immediately establishes an impatient, anxious sort of pacing and infectious beat, and this tone is maintained throughout, with effective guitar/bass breaks and a jolt of an ending, both musically and lyrically. "Reduced Below Nothing" addresses abject loneliness and dehumanization. But as if in defiance of this dark form of existence (or "disexistence"?), the music has a swaggering feel. Big, fat power chords are elongated, then syncopated, and made even more distinctive by their pairing with nonstandard, rumbling rhythms. A great guitar solo and all-instrument barrages interspersed with dynamic guitar breaks further enrich the cool tonal contrast between lyrics and music.
The demo closes with "Lying," a beautifully sung, haunting song, featuring a mellotron creating the poignant sound of a flute and Ebow-produced, otherworldly-sounding guitar effects. Its lyrics are simple but deceptively so: heard in relation to the foregoing songs, the lines come across as an eloquent expression of much of the demo's lyrical content.
To say that This Haven's music blends elements of grooving melodic metal with touches of prog, stonerrock and hardcore gives little hint to the creativity and artistry with which they reference these influences, doing things that may resemble sounds you've heard before but transforming and frequently improving upon them. Based on what they have already achieved in just 9 recorded songs, This Haven deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as any of the leading forces in creative rock/metal. At http://www.thishaven.com you can download both "My Year Zero" and "Disexist," demos that could easily form about 2/3 of a brilliant full-length album, which some smart label would be fortunate to have the honor of releasing.
Just recently they completed their possibly even more brilliant follow-up, "My Year Zero," once again with Dan Swanö co-producing/mixing, and this time playing a role in the recording as well. This demo-in-name-only offers six superb songs, expertly recorded and brilliantly performed. Patrik Karlsson and Tobbe Jacobsson's beyond-crunchy guitars assault the listener in unpredictable ways, with variations in force, duration, and angle, while Nicklas Keijser's polyrhythmic drumming (so complex it often sounds like two guys playing simultaneously) and Johan Berglund's intricate bass lines propel This Haven's power. Contributing to the overall feeling of aggressiveness and melodic beauty, Patrik Karlsson's vocals are assertive and smooth, with nice touches of grittiness. This is music with a distinctive heavy/melodic sound and the tightest, thickest, edgiest groove.
If you like opening tracks that create instant tension, you'll love "The Itch!" A looping, twitchy bass establishes delicious unsettlement that only increases with the addition of barrelling guitars, in a jagged riff that perfectly mirrors the prodding of an insatiable craving, "the everlasting itch" that makes you "twist and turn." At one point the sonic attack gives way to a quiet, dreamy interlude, suggesting the momentary assuagement of the itch, only to resume in an intensified form, guitars, bass and drums battering like off-kilter hammer strokes: temporary satisfaction leads only to "increased obsession."
There's no let-up with the next track, the ultra-tight "Run Out of Tears," in which heavily grooving, plunging rhythms form a hypnotic undertow that duels with the martial aural attacks of a heavy marching beat, featuring a machine-gun bass drum, and stacatto guitar work. The two moods are blended in extremely crunchy guitar parts that somehow undulate, jab, and strut simultaneously, and a strong vocal that sounds like quiet shouting. In the middle of the song the contrasting tones struggle for dominance in a long instrumental passage: following a crisp percussive wallop, a great, twisty guitar solo casts a seductive spell, which is broken by the inexorable force of a heavy guitar/drums assault. Using striking images to present a clear-eyed view of the world that is bleak but not melodramatically so, this song should make Maynard James Keenan wish he could have covered it on APC's politically-themed "eMotive."
The demo's centerpiece is its title track, a masterpiece of subtle intensity with another great solo bass opening and a powerful vocal. This is a smoldering song with a strong emotional quality and explosive building-moments, reflecting the song's expression of emancipation and rebirth from restraint and futility. The refrain is especially electrifying, as the music swells and the line "My chains break, and I breathe again" is repeated with passionate assertiveness. This song shows vocalist Patrik Karlsson at his gritty and aggressive best. And he is only beginning to explore his considerable talents as a singer. Versatility is one of the hallmarks of his style, and both of This Haven's demos abound with moments that inspire a craving to hear more of what he can do. The way he sounds in the spoken lines in "Run Out of Tears" and at the beginning of "The Following," for example, make me want to hear him sing an entire song in some kind of cross between the two, a crawl-right-under-your-skin, deep, raspy whisper, prominently mixed.
"The Following" and "Reduced Below Nothing" may be the catchiest songs on the demo, but this infectiousness doesn't mean they're any less intense or lyrically weighty than the other songs. "The Following" explores the frantic search for meaning and divine guidance. Loaded with ambiguity, the provocative lyrics imply that creeds offer only "hollow truth," and that the urge to believe ultimately leads to doom--in one form or another. With a corkscrew-assault bass/guitar opening, the song immediately establishes an impatient, anxious sort of pacing and infectious beat, and this tone is maintained throughout, with effective guitar/bass breaks and a jolt of an ending, both musically and lyrically. "Reduced Below Nothing" addresses abject loneliness and dehumanization. But as if in defiance of this dark form of existence (or "disexistence"?), the music has a swaggering feel. Big, fat power chords are elongated, then syncopated, and made even more distinctive by their pairing with nonstandard, rumbling rhythms. A great guitar solo and all-instrument barrages interspersed with dynamic guitar breaks further enrich the cool tonal contrast between lyrics and music.
The demo closes with "Lying," a beautifully sung, haunting song, featuring a mellotron creating the poignant sound of a flute and Ebow-produced, otherworldly-sounding guitar effects. Its lyrics are simple but deceptively so: heard in relation to the foregoing songs, the lines come across as an eloquent expression of much of the demo's lyrical content.
To say that This Haven's music blends elements of grooving melodic metal with touches of prog, stonerrock and hardcore gives little hint to the creativity and artistry with which they reference these influences, doing things that may resemble sounds you've heard before but transforming and frequently improving upon them. Based on what they have already achieved in just 9 recorded songs, This Haven deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as any of the leading forces in creative rock/metal. At http://www.thishaven.com you can download both "My Year Zero" and "Disexist," demos that could easily form about 2/3 of a brilliant full-length album, which some smart label would be fortunate to have the honor of releasing.
