HAKEN ANNOUNCE JUNE RELEASE FOR NEW ALBUM ‘VIRUS’

April 3, 2020

Progressive rockers Haken have announced their new album ‘Virus’ will be released 5th June 2020 and today have released the first single and opening track ‘Prosthetic’.

‘Virus’ is the follow-up to their previous album ‘Vector’ and its themes and concept connects the two pieces of work, such that a back to back performance of both albums is a possible future idea.

Given the pandemic we are all struggling though at this time, the choice of title is coincidental, as Ross Jennings is keen to stress in this video:

New single ‘Prosthetic’ sees the band on top heavy progressive form. The band tells us: “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.”

Drummer Ray Hearne says “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’”.