Project Description

HAKEN
“VIRUS”
(Album Review)
May 2020

Reviewer: Christopher Reid

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The British progressive act have risen to the summit of modern progressive music over the last decade. Gone are the days of introducing them as a relatively obscure, or up and coming prog band.  Dream Theater aside, I’d argue that there is no progressive metal band in the business that is as widely respected as Haken are in today’s scene. 

Their 2013 album The Mountain was a clear turning point for the UK based 6 piece –  the album garnered significant praise from fans and critics alike – but you could probably argue that it has been Affinity (2016), and Vector (2018) that have taken Haken (rhyme indented) into the realms of being a ‘popular’ prog act (by heavy and progressive standards anyway).

Their 6th Studio Album is entitled “Virus” (apparently timing of the release, mid COVID-19 pandemic, is unintended),  and whilst the press releases and band statements tie the album in concept and style to 2018’s album Vector (the pairing of Red Ketchup (Vector) and Yellow Mustard (Virus) was used before the album detail dropped), you don’t need to be a die-hard fan of their previous work to enjoy the new release  – Virus is able to be enjoyed as a stand-alone piece of work.

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With that said, there is no doubt that the publicised linkage to Vector was intriguing, and this intrigue was heightened with the band linking both works back to their fan favourite track ‘The Cockroach King’ from 2013’s the Mountain;

“Since releasing ‘The Mountain’ in 2013, one question has been asked of us time and time again, ‘who is the Cockroach King?’. This is something we were interested in exploring more deeply too, so we essentially did that through our music; elaborating and expanding upon the intervallic, harmonic, rhythmic and lyrical themes of that song. The end result is in an arc which spans across two albums: ‘Vector’ and ‘Virus’”. If ‘Vector’ was an origin story, ‘Virus’ portrays an ascent to power, tyranny and subsequent endgame.

Without access to the lyrics it’s hard to pick up on every reference that Haken have littered through the album, but from a musical perspective there are countless subtle and no so subtle references to The Cockroach King and Vector, with the 5 part epic ‘Messiah Complex’ being the primary example of all of this….but we’ll get to that in due course.

The album gets underway with the 1st single from the album entitled Prosthetic. It’s a heavy song by Haken standards with plenty of hard hitting riffs and rhythmical complexity and nuance  – It’ll be a nightmare to try and headbang along to in the live setting! I get a bit of a Symphony X vibe out of the heavy riffing, but it’s got a pretty strong Haken flavour about it and it sets the tone for the album nicely. Shout out to Ray Hearne for having an absolute field day with time/feel in the interlude section #JusticeForRay

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I really like Invasion. It’s a very rhythmically heavy arrangement with strong syncopation in the vocal lines. Ross Jennings employs some raspy vocals towards the middle of the track which add a relatively new colour  to his usual vocal palate. Carousel is arguably my favourite track other than the epic Messiah Complex. It must be said that the first few vocal lines are a little cringey, but the rest of the 10 minute track atones for any unintentional Nickleback-esque pop rock up front. It’s pretty difficult to summarise Carousel other than to say it’s largely Haken doing what they do best.

The Strain & Canary Yellow mid-paced and more subdued than the previous tracks. Both offer plenty of vocal hooks, rhythmical nuance, and virtuosity in the arrangements. Both of these tracks are very enjoyable, well composed,  and relatively concise  – concise by Haken standards anyway.

Messiah Complex is undoubtedly the jewel in the crown of this album, and arguably the best piece of music in the Haken catalogue (bold call, I know). I: Ivory Tower sets the scene before II:A Glutton For Punishment takes things up a notch – this section is full of the highly technical and creative instrumentation we’ve come to know Haken for. There are plenty of ‘easter eggs’ in this piece too – I hear a bit of Puzzle Box in the vocals and plenty of nods to The Cockroach King in the arrangement. III: Marigold slows things down before getting pretty hectic, flowing nicely into in IV: The Sect, which contains plenty of the acapella style vocals made famous in Cockroach King. The instrumental section towards the end of The Sectis full scale instrumental madness and contains some very obvious nods to the Cockroach King whilst leading into the epic final section V: Ectobius Rex. I’m happy to admit that the reprise of the massive vocal hook from the verse of the Cockroach King acoumpanied by a heavy riff  got the hair standing  up on the back of my the neck on the first listen through! This section isn’t just a throwback to the Cockroach King though, it’s a stunningly cohesive track despite numerous nods to plenty of the other tracks from Vector and Virus – an obvious one is the interlude/guitar melody from the album opener Prosthetic.

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Only Stars is a brief vocal  / piano piece which closes out the album in a sombre, introspective way. The melodies are more than just reminiscent to ‘Clear’ – the 1st track on Vector – and with that, Haken have taken us full circle – an epic and fitting conclusion to the album, and the Vector/Virus albums.

Over the last couple of albums Haken have seemed to make a conscious effort to construct their albums  with a blend of songs – some that remain focussed and relatively concise,  whilst including one or two longwinded epics that their long-time fans will expect, and to some extent-demand.   This formula has served the band well, and does the job yet again on Virus.

Whenever Haken release new music it rates very highly for me.  Yet again Haken have created an album that is likely to be my album of the year. I can’t be sure that they wrote Vector knowing that they would write Virus, but there’s no doubt that they’ve pulled off something special with this album, and in particular the Messiah Complex.

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AMNPLIFY – DB