Fauna (Haken album)

Fauna is the seventh studio album by English progressive metal band Haken. It was released on 3 March 2023 through Inside Out Music. The album is the first release without keyboardist Diego Tejeida, who left the band in 2021. Founding member Peter Jones served as his replacement. The first single "Nightingale" was released on 26 April 2022, when the band had not yet started to record the whole album.[2] The second single "The Alphabet of Me" was first announced, along with the cover art and name of the album, at their website with a puzzle game.[3]

Fauna
Studio album by
Haken
Released3 March 2023 (2023-03-03)
Recorded2022
StudioThe Crypt (London)
Length62:07
LabelInside Out Music
ProducerHaken
Haken chronology
Virus
(2020)		 Fauna
(2023)
Singles from Fauna
  1. "Nightingale"
    Released: 26 April 2022
  2. "The Alphabet of Me"
    Released: 9 December 2022
  3. "Taurus"
    Released: 18 January 2023
  4. "Lovebite"
    Released: 14 February 2023
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]

Background

About the origin of the album, singer Ross Jennings said:[4]

When composing and presenting initial song sketches, we very much had an “anything goes” mentality, and whilst sounding atypically Haken, it was a piece that was all exciting us to explore and integrate into our song canon. Where the lyrics are concerned, I leant heavily on one of my favourite writers Philip K. Dick, for inspiration. Keeping our loose concept of spirit animals in mind, I re-read ‘Do robots dream of electric sheep?’ (Which would later be adapted into the 1982 film ’Blade Runner’) knowing symbolically that animals played a key role in the story. This, along with revisiting both movies from the Blade Runner franchise, opened up some deeper philosophical topics about the nature of identity which have served as a backbone for the lyrical content.

The singer added:[5]

The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it. They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.

Guitarist Richard Henshall followed:[6]

It reminds me of 'The Mountain'. There, we had the idea of not really a narrative-based album, but more the concept of climbing a mountain and overcoming the obstacles along the way. Then we took that and thought about how it could relate to our everyday lives. All of Fauna's animales relate to us, personally".

Track listing
Fauna track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Taurus"4:49
2."Nightingale"7:24
3."The Alphabet of Me"5:33
4."Sempiternal Beings"8:23
5."Beneath the White Rainbow"6:45
6."Island in the Clouds"5:45
7."Lovebite"3:49
8."Elephants Never Forget"11:07
9."Eyes of Ebony"8:32
Total length:62:07
Japanese edition bonus track[7]
No.TitleLength
10."The Last Lullaby"3:14
Total length:65:21

Personnel

Haken

  • Ross Jennings – vocals
  • Richard Henshall – guitars
  • Charlie Griffiths – guitars
  • Peter Jones – keyboards
  • Conner Green – bass
  • Raymond Hearne – drums
  • Miguel Gorodi - trumpet

Production and design

  • Haken – production
  • Paul Winstanley – engineering
  • Linus Corneliusson – engineering
  • Jens Bogren – mixing
  • Tony Lindgren – mastering
  • Dan Goldsworthy – artwork
  • Max Taylor Grant - photography

Charts
Chart performance for Fauna
Chart (2023) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[8] 24
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[9] 102
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[10] 116
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[11] 89
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[12] 19
French Albums (SNEP)[13] 159
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[14] 13
Italian Albums (FIMI)[15] 95
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[16] 32
Scottish Albums (OCC)[17] 15
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[18] 12
UK Album Downloads (OCC)[19] 26
UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[20] 2

References
  1. "Haken - Fauna Album Reviews, Songs & More". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  2. "HAKEN Begins Recording New Album". 29 July 2022.
  3. "Reveal Haken's upcoming album cover!".
  4. "HAKEN - NEW ALBUM 'FAUNA' OUT MARCH 2023". Hakenmusic.com. 8 December 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  5. "Haken - Fauna 2CD Digipack + Digital Download | Shop the Century Media Official Store". Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  6. "HAKEN Announce Release of 7th Studio Album 'Fauna'; Watch Music Video for First Single 'The Alphabet of Me'". 9 December 2022.
  7. "Haken (2) – Fauna = ファウナ (2023, CD)". Sony Music Japan. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  8. "Austriancharts.at – Haken – Fauna" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  9. "Ultratop.be – Haken – Fauna" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  10. "Ultratop.be – Haken – Fauna" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  11. "Dutchcharts.nl – Haken – Fauna" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  12. "Haken: Fauna" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  13. "Lescharts.com – Haken – Fauna". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  14. "Offiziellecharts.de – Haken – Fauna" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  15. "Italiancharts.com – Haken – Fauna". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  16. "Portuguesecharts.com – Haken – Fauna". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  17. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  18. "Swisscharts.com – Haken – Fauna". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  19. "Official Album Downloads Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  20. "Official Rock & Metal Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
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