Haken announce new album ‘Virus’

HAKEN have announced a new album!

Titled Virus, the upcoming album from the English progressive metallers follows 2018’s Vector and is scheduled to be released in June this year, via InsideOut Music.

Since releasing Vector, the band have completed headline tours the world over, played sold-out shows across Europe and North America as support for Devin Townsend and picked up a Prog Award. All the while, they have been quietly, secretly working on the follow-up album; Virus. Drummer Ray Hearne reveals, “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.”

Once again, Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood has mixed what is perhaps the most eclectic HAKEN album to date, with the seven tracks revealing hints of influences from multiple genres, all intertwined with the band’s own recognisable sound. Guitarist Richard Henshall had this to say about the production, “using Nolly again was a no-brainer, as we wanted the two albums to be sonically connected. But having just spent a day mixing with him in his studio, it’s obvious that this album will be an evolution of the Vector sound. These songs seem to allow a lot more freedom of creativity with the production, so we’re excited to see where it leads.”

Alongside the announcement of the new album, the band have released a new music video for the first song to be lifted from the upcoming album; titled Prosthetic. Speaking about the new song and its accompanying music video, 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!

Lyrically the song is a bridge between our two albums Vector and Virus. The message was brilliantly brought to life by video director Vicente Cordero, who also beautifully captured the live energy of the band in a way that both enhances the song, and perfectly sets the scene for what’s to come.”

Watch the official music video for Prosthetic here:

Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming album below:

Track List: 

1. Prosthetic
2. Invasion
3. Carousel
4. The Strain
5. Canary Yellow
6. Messiah Complex I: Ivory Tower
7. Messiah Complex II: A Glutton for Punishment
8. Messiah Complex III: Marigold
9. Messiah Complex IV: The Sect
10. Messiah Complex V: Ectobius Rex
11. Only Stars

Virus is set for release on June 5th via InsideOut Music.

For more information on HAKEN like their official page on Facebook.