Haken
Haken are a British progressive metal band formed in 2007 by multi-instrumentalist Richard Henshall, vocalist and former guitarist Ross Jennings, and guitarist Matthew Marshall.
The trio opted to pursue their instruments and songwriting first. After recruiting three new members, the group released their first demo album, Enter the 5th Dimension
in 2008. After signing with Sensory Records in 2009 and then InsideOut Music in 2013, the band have, as of 2023, released seven studio albums, one EP and two live releases.
EtymologyNOTE: The sources for some information here have ceased to be publicly available.First of all, the band's name is pronounced "Hay-ken" (as in "Taken"). The name Haken dates back to 2004 when Henshall, Jennings and Marshall were schoolmates. The name stems from a fictional character Henshall had come up with while under the influence, a Viking named "Haakon the Magnificent." According to the Henshall, Haakon was a Viking adventurer attempting to find the fabled "Celestial Elixir" which was actually just bottled water. When naming the band, they chose to alter the name from "Haakon" to "Haken" to sound better as a word in English. HistoryEarly Years (2004-2009)Richard Henshall, Matthew Marshall, and Ross Jennings had grown up as friends in their teenage years and first had the idea to form Haken in 2004, when they would regularly play together in "casual bedroom jams". Initially all three of them were guitarists, with Jennings also providing vocals. Early on, Jennings ended up parting ways with Henshall and Marshall as their guitar skills far eclipsed his own. He would later be asked to re-join as solely a vocalist.NOTE: The sources for some information here have ceased to be publicly available. They completed their lineup with a keyboardist they met on an online forum, Pete Jones, as well as Jones' close friend Raymond Hearne. To-Mera guitarist Thomas MacLean became the band's bassist. Under this line-up, the band would record four songs known as "The Guyver", "A Little Bit of Cheese", "Souls", and "Snow". "The Guyver" would be played publicly for the first time in July 2020 on a Twitch livestream held by the band. "A Little Bit of Cheese" has yet to be released in any form, only being mentioned to exist by the band. Only the last two would see a proper release, as they were compiled onto a self-titled demo EP. With the writing and inclusion of more songs, this EP grew into a full demo album in 2008 titled "Enter the 5th Dimension." Aquarius and Visions (2010-2012)After releasing the demo album, they searched for a a label. They initially approached InsideOut Music, who turned them down believing that their music was too unapproachable. The only label that were eventually willing to take them was Sensory Records, the progressive metal arm of label Laser's Edge. From there, the band began recording their debut album, Aquarius, in 2009. The album was recorded on a very tight budget, with only the drums and Charlie Griffiths' guitar being recorded in a studio. Everything else was recorded in the members' own homes. The album, an apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy tale about a mermaid, would be was released on 30 March 2011.Immediately after the release of Aquarius, the band got to work on their second outing, Visions. Visions too was a concept album, based on a premonition Jennings had of his own death. The album was recorded in much of the same conditions as Aquarius but was eventually released as a concert at ProgPower USA on 17 September 2011, followed by a studio release on 25 October. The Mountain and Restoration (2013-2015)The release of Visions caught the attention of InsideOut Music, who now deemed taking on Haken a worthy endeavour. On June 30 2013, the band announced they had been offered a deal by InsideOut Music and were releasing their third album, The Mountain, under them. The album released on 2 September 2013 to critical acclaim. The album became popular in the progressive metal community and brought the band to the forefront of the genre. With this newfound popularity, the band embarked on their first world tour. This increasingly busy touring schedule was too much for bassist Thomas MacLean who, on 25 September 2013, announced he was leaving Haken after completing the Prog Stage Festival in Israel in October 2013.After holding a series of auditions, MacLean was replaced by American bassist Conner Green. To see how Green would mold with the rest of the band, the band produced an EP consisting of three tracks from Enter the 5th Dimension, including the aforementioned "Snow", re-imagined into new pieces called "Darkest Light", "Earthlings" and "Crystallised". Affinity and L-1VE (2016-2018)After embarking on another tour, including a performance at Ramblin' Man Fair 2014, the band got to work writing Album 4. On 9 February 2016, a press release along with a micro site called "Haken OS 4.0.1", made to resemble an old phosphor monitor display, was released with information of Affinity. promote the album, a long series of teasers had been posted by the band, jokingly referring to the new album as Verbatim, ending in a 50-minute epic titled "The Verbatim." The album was later revealed to be called Affinity, along with the release of its first single "Initiate", on 18 March 2016. The album would be released two months later on 29 April. Affinity is seen as the first release where all members of the band contributed towards its songwriting.After the release of the album, the band embarked on their biggest ever tour, the "AffiniTOUR", as well as "Haken X", a tour to celebrate Haken's 10th anniversary. Recordings from these tours were made into a set of live releases. L-1VE was released on 13 April 2018 featuring eleven tracks performed at the Melkweg, Amsterdam on 13 April 2017. Their next live release, L+1VE was released on 7 December 2018, featuring four tracks played at ProgPower USA on 10 September 2016. Vector and Virus (2018-2021)The band announced on 4 July 2018 that they were working on a fifth album, stating that "it's still early days but there is a sense among us that Haken may take a darker path with this one." Vector would be released not long after, on 26 October 2018. At this time, the seeds for the bands next release had already been sown. In the downtime between Vector and Virus, Henshall released his first solo album "The Cocoon" on 9 August 2020, featuring Jennings on its first single "Twisted Shadows". Jennings' side project Novena also released their debut album "Eleventh Hour" on 6 March 2020.In late 2019, the band embarked on a tour as a supporting act for Devin Townsend, though in March 2020 they would need to quickly rush back to their respective homelands due to the recently begun COVID-19 pandemic. Due to this sudden end to the tour, the band found themselves in a poor financial situation. As such, Haken fan-group "Haken Cockroachposting" set up a GoFundMe to financially support the band during the pandemic. Shortly after the band returned from their tour in America, InsideOut Music released a live bootleg of the band's performance at the Roundhouse in London. The last four seconds of the video were a teaser for an upcoming single, revealed the next day to be the song "Prosthetic" from a new album titled "Virus". The album was initially planned to be released on 5 June 2020 but was postponed three times to 24 July of that year. A Japanese release of the album was released just over a month later on 26 August, with an acousting rendition of the track "Canary Yellow" featuring vocalist Courtney Swain from American art rock band Bent Knee performing the song's chorus in Japanese. Following the release of Virus, the band would become increasing silent in regards to Diego Tejeida. He officially announced his resignation from the band on 22 November 2021. Currently (2022-)In a surprise announcement, founding member Peter Jones rejoined the band on 19 January 2022. The band announced shortly after on February 24 that they had finished writing their next album. On 10 March 2022, the band announced they had finished recording the album's first single, "Nightingale", and hosted an art competition for the single's artwork.Discography
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- The band's most listened to song is "Cockroach King" with 8.6 million listens. (As of November 2022, Spotify stats only)
- The band's least listened to song is "Sun" with roughly 352 thousand listens. (As of November 2022, Spotify stats only)
