Alright, it’s time for me to talk about the drummer of the band that changed everything for me musically. I will elaborate on the band itself in my upcoming podcast that will discuss my musical journey, so this post will be dedicated to the drummer alone. This drummer has had the largest influence on me overall as a musician, and as a result much of my ideas are continuously inspired by him. He is none other than…
Ray Hearne – Drummer for Haken
Taken from https://www.moderndrummer.com/2018/11/on-the-beat-with-ray-hearne-of-haken-talks-new-album-vector/
Again, I will elaborate on Haken as a band in that aforementioned podcast. What I will say now is that they are the sole reason I have been hooked on Progressive Rock and Metal ever since I first heard their work in high school. This mostly began with their early material from the albums Aquarius and Visions. Compared to their recent work, Ray’s drumming is not overly complex in these albums, but what I find more intriguing is how well his ideas fit with the music. As a side note, I find this is where I am musically in my early writing stages; I feel my parts fit the song musically, but I would like to find a way to add complexity that blends perfectly with the song. This being said, I can always look back on Ray’s journey to extrapolate how to do this effectively. To begin, let’s look at an example from Aquarius, their first album. I will refrain from choosing the long epic Celestial Elixir as there is too much to talk about in a single post, so I will settle with “Drowning in the Flood”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai2U8Jv_Peg
For the most part, the drums during the main verses are reminiscent of your average metalcore track; nothing too crazy with the bass drum mostly mimicking the rhythm of the guitar. There is nothing wrong with this whatsoever, as it fits the music perfectly and creates an infectious beat. I must say though, Ray’s experience over the years really shows in his newest material compared to this, as it is nowhere near as simplistic. There is actually a hint of this coming out around the 1:27 mark with an interesting beat between the ride and hi-hat. This style of intricacy becomes much more common and prominent in their later work. For an example, let’s take a look at a track off Haken’s third album The Mountain titled “Pareidolia”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AbGjGpJPO0
This song is quite long, so I will highlight certain parts of it. The first time I heard the section at 3:43, I was absolutely blown away by the rhythm, melody, and use of instruments. I also really enjoy Ray’s choices here; first mimicking the single note shots using cymbals with the rhythm instruments, then copying the quick extra shots with tom/snare fills, finally leading into a regular djent beat with a pulsed cymbal on the beat. All of this is absolutely brilliant to me and is a great example of the level of composition I hope to achieve. The next major section I want to talk about is the drum solo at 7:39. Ray goes crazy here with some modulation in 9/8 time that to this day still boggles my mind. I do not really have much to mention regarding this solo other than it being a fantastic depiction as to how far Ray keeps improving over time. I will now move on to something more modern; this is “Nil by Mouth” off the album Vector:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuGQpJ7fLjw
Haken have a small handful of amazing instrumental songs, but this is likely the most insane one overall. At the 0:47 mark, we can hear Ray filling in the gaps with the floor tom, somewhat similar to his approach to writing the unison section in Pareidolia. Later on during a “breakdown” at 1:50, Ray uses both toms as well as multiple cymbals to create a beat while mimicking the rhythm and melody with double bass. Just in this one section, he managed to combine every element of writing that I mentioned from Drowning in the Flood and Pareidolia in such a smart and advanced way. This is where his experience over the years really shines; he is able to take any idea he has ever had, improve the technicality of it, and combine them together to create something entirely new. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s just the definition of innovation.
The unfortunate aspect of this blog post is that it only highlights a few of the brilliant ideas Ray has and how he has improved over time. There is much more to his drumming and Haken’s music overall that I highly suggest everyone attempts to check out. Each member of the band continues to evolve and innovate within the Progressive Metal genre, constantly keeping them very relevant and fresh. I cannot wait to hear what Ray and Haken have in store for the coming years. To finish this post off, I will leave you all with part one of five of the 17~ minute epic from Haken’s most recent album titled “Virus”. If you enjoy this, I implore you to listen to all five parts and understand how amazing Haken has become in terms of songwriting. Here is “Messiah Complex i: Ivory Tower,” and thank you for reading!
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