At this point Haken are a very well-established progressive rock/metal act, with a loud and loyal fanbase. But while I’d heard of them and knew one or two tracks, I don’t think I’d ever even played a whole album of theirs through before this one. No idea why, but a couple of the tracks that were made available ahead of Fauna – their seventh full-length – came into my orbit last Christmas, so I was already looking forward to this record ahead of its release in March. I know that Fauna has split the fanbase, some of whom see it as too djent-y and overly ‘modern’ compared to Haken’s previous 80s-prog inspired releases – but I don’t have a dog in that back catalogue race, so I’ve just enjoyed Fauna on its own terms. In the best traditions of prog, the record is heavily produced but is also wilfully dense and impenetrable. ‘Elephants Never Forget’, for example, veers from Queen operatics, through chugging stoner metal riffs, and (two – count them!) Slash-style wailing solos, over the course of 11 discombobulating minutes. And that’s just one track: there are eight others. Haken are never going to be megastars because they’re too weird even for most rock music fans; plus, in some respects, they are self-consciously anachronistic. But that’s kinda the fun.