The London based prog-metal band HAKEN whose work we have previously described as “conscientiously expressive, with vocals that stream out like a burst of butterflies and instrumentals that are incredibly rich & completely convincing…” have now revealed details of their new studio album titled, prophetically, ‘Virus’, which is the follow-up to 2018’s acclaimed ‘Vector’.
Virus will be released 5th June 2020. The album is the culmination of a musical thought experiment which started with the ‘Vector’ writing sessions in 2017 and holds intriguing potential for the band’s future, as vocalist Ross Jennings explains: “Whilst ‘Virus’ can absolutely be enjoyed as a stand-alone work, it is thematically and conceptually linked with ‘Vector’, so our intention is to perform both albums back to back for a special performance someday”.
The band have shared the first single and opening track to the album, ‘Prosthetic’, with a video directed by Vicente Cordero which you can see below. The band says: “Prosthetic was the first song we completed during the ‘Virus’ writing sessions and we always felt it would be the perfect opener for the album...”
“It’s a very guitar heavy track with its roots in 80s thrash riffing, but with the unconventional rhythmic twists and turns we often like to explore in Haken. We sadly never had a Jeff Hanneman and Robert Fripp collaboration, but this song at least draws on inspiration from them both...”
“Prosthetic” begins with an aggressively splintery bombination and grows in strength & danger before it strides bestially across some kind of morassy wasteland towards a trumpetwood of sacerdotal release. “I don’t want to talk about it any more...” This creatively evokes the brainsick malaise we must all be feeling right now…
For fans of: Soen, Bruce Soord