While their first two full-length albums were acclaimed in their own right, 2013's The Mountain began a snowball effect for progressive sextet Haken, conjuring up a small, yet fervent amount of reverence among fans that has only grown in stature as it's rolled downhill over the past decade. What's curious about this development is the group's artistic response to it; the '70s prog-influenced theatrical ethos of The Mountain hasn't been outright abandoned, so much as it's been unstably paired against increasingly recent musical trends. The unabashed '80s pastiche of Affinity and the more modern progressive metal leanings of Vector and Virus have certainly polarized listeners. Many have lauded the group's ability to progress while remaining loyal to their musical origins, while others have derided their increased affection for djenty breakdowns and anachronistic Roland synth sounds. I'm an outlier in the sense that I believe each Haken album since 2013 has been stronger than the last, with Virus being their most complete and artistically accomplished project thus far. Undoubtedly, this burdens Fauna with a plethora of expectations, few of which went unmet for me. With the exception of one major misstep, Fauna has an argument as Haken's strongest effort yet, a dense thicket of diverse sounds that functions as both a nostalgic trip down memory lane and a confident step into the future.