Tag: Ray Hearne

HAKEN celebrate Valentine’s Day with new single ‘Lovebite’ 

Progressive rockers HAKEN are set to release their seventh studio album ‘Fauna’ on the 3rd March 2023, the group’s most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date. 

Today, the band celebrate Valentine’s Day with the launch of their latest single ‘Lovebite’. 

Watch the video now here:

Pre-order the album or stream the track here: 

https://haken.lnk.to/Fauna

 Ross Jennings says this about the track:

“What better song to put out on this fine valentine’s day than one about the Black Widow Spider mating ritual… This is the Phil Collins inspired upbeat love song in 11/8 with Cannibal Corpse inspired lyrics that you never knew you needed!” 

Watch the previously released videos below.

 ‘Taurus’:

‘The Alphabet of Me’:

‘Nightingale’:

The tracklisting is as follows:

1.     Taurus 04:49

2.     Nightingale 07:24

3.     The Alphabet of Me 05:33

4.     Sempiternal Beings 08:23

5.     Beneath The White Rainbow 06:45

6.     Island In The Clouds 05:45

7.     Lovebite 03:49

8.     Elephants Never Forget 11:07

9.     Eyes Of Ebony 08:32 

‘Fauna’ will be available on several formats, including Ltd 2CD (incl. instrumentals), Standard CD, Gatefold 2LP & as Digital Album. The albums stunningly detailed artwork was created by Dan Goldsworthy (Charlie Griffiths, Sylosis)

Pre-order now here: https://haken.lnk.to/Fauna 

‘Fauna’ sees the band exploring new ideas conceptually as Ross continues. “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it. They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.” 

“It reminds me of The Mountain,” adds guitarist and fellow founder Richard Henshall. “There, we had the idea of not really a narrative-based album, but more the concept of climbing a mountain and overcoming the obstacles along the way. Then we took that and thought about how it could relate to our everyday lives. All of Fauna’s animals relate to us, personally.” 

‘Fauna’ also marks the return of keyboard player Peter Jones, whose sounds can be heard permeating the entire album. “What Pete’s brought sonically to the band has played a massive role in why we do have a lot of new sounds on this record,” says Ross. “It’s always a new dynamic when there’s a change in personnel, and this is a fresh and reviving one. It’s certainly helped proximity-wise, with Pete being in the country: Pete and Ray [Hearne, Haken’s drummer] would be at Rich’s place and they’d just start jamming. That’s really key to how the songs start.”

The band have announced tour dates for North America and Europe.

Find the full list of tour dates here: https://hakenmusic.com/tour/

HAKEN are:

Ross Jennings

Richard Henshall

Charlie Griffiths

Pete Jones

Conner Green

Ray Hearne

HAKEN release video for “Taurus”, 3rd single from forthcoming studio album ‘Fauna’

Progressive rockers HAKEN recently announced their seventh studio album ‘Fauna’, the group’s most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date, will be released on the 3rd March 2023.

Today, the band are pleased to release “Taurus” the 3rd single from the album.

You can watch the video, produced by Crystal Spotlight, here:

Pre-order the album or stream the track here: 

https://haken.lnk.to/Fauna

Ross Jennings says this about the track:

“With such a diverse and eclectic array of material on ‘Fauna’, it was important for us to include a piece of music that represented the metallic edge of our sound which was exploited predominantly on ‘Vector’ & ‘Virus’, with our focus being on hard hitting riffs in odd time signatures.”

“The song’s lyrics were written roughly at the same time we all started hearing about the devastation and crisis happening in Ukraine. I was already writing the piece based on the annual migration of the wildebeests with strong references to people travelling in herds and strength in numbers. Suddenly I realised I had an anchor for what the song could be about and knowing this gives it all the more emotional weight; We’re all on some sort of journey towards salvation or enlightenment. Sometimes out of choice or not, we need to leave the past behind us and make new beginnings. We only have each other, and belief and hope are our strongest allies.”

Watch the video for the previously single ‘The Alphabet of Me’ here:

Watch “Nightingale” here:

The tracklisting is as follows:

1.     Taurus 04:49

2.     Nightingale 07:24

3.     The Alphabet of Me 05:33

4.     Sempiternal Beings 08:23

5.     Beneath The White Rainbow 06:45

6.     Island In The Clouds 05:45

7.     Lovebite 03:49

8.     Elephants Never Forget 11:07

9.     Eyes Of Ebony 08:32

‘Fauna’ will be available on several formats, including Ltd 2CD (incl. instrumentals), Standard CD, Gatefold 2LP & as Digital Album. The albums stunningly detailed artwork was created by Dan Goldsworthy (Charlie Griffiths, Sylosis)

Pre-order now here: https://haken.lnk.to/Fauna 

‘Fauna’ sees the band exploring new ideas conceptually as Ross continues. “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it. They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.”

“It reminds me of The Mountain,” adds guitarist and fellow founder Richard Henshall. “There, we had the idea of not really a narrative-based album, but more the concept of climbing a mountain and overcoming the obstacles along the way. Then we took that and thought about how it could relate to our everyday lives. All of Fauna’s animals relate to us, personally.” 

‘Fauna’ also marks the return of keyboard player Peter Jones, whose sounds can be heard permeating the entire album. “What Pete’s brought sonically to the band has played a massive role in why we do have a lot of new sounds on this record,” says Ross. “It’s always a new dynamic when there’s a change in personnel, and this is a fresh and reviving one. It’s certainly helped proximity-wise, with Pete being in the country: Pete and Ray [Hearne, Haken’s drummer] would be at Rich’s place and they’d just start jamming. That’s really key to how the songs start.” 

The band have announced tour dates for North America and Europe.

Find the full list of tour dates here: https://hakenmusic.com/tour/ 

HAKEN are:

Ross Jennings

Richard Henshall

Charlie Griffiths

Pete Jones

Conner Green

Ray Hearne

HAKEN launch new single ‘Nightingale’ / begin North American tour with Symphony X on May 10th

Progressive rockers, Haken, are excited to announce the release of their brand new single, ‘Nightingale’. The latest single showcases the first new material the band have presented with returning keyboard player, Pete Jones, and the first since the release of their last album, ‘Virus’, back in 2020. 

Watch the video here:

Stream & download the track here: https://haken.lnk.to/Nightingale-Single

The band comments: “Nightingale was the first track Pete Jones presented to the band after rejoining Haken this year. The initial song idea quickly inspired of the classic Haken sound and naturally evolved into some new harmonic territory. The song ranges from delicate moments to monstrous riffs. 

We enlisted Jens Bogren to mix Nightingale and, as always, he’s blown us away by capturing every detail while delivering power and energy. We couldn’t be happier with the finished product. 

Lyrically, the song reflects on the creative process itself; with a message that although it may be difficult of late, we must remember to be thankful for the positives in life; be they big or small.” 

In March, the band announced the initial details of ‘Nightingale’, as well as held a competition for fans to submit their own original artwork for the forthcoming single. The winning artwork as chosen by the band themselves, from Belgium’s Rein Van Oyen, can be seen below.

The band was recently forced to announce the postponement of their European tour dates, with new dates soon to be announced. Their upcoming North American tour begins with ‘Cruise to the Edge’ leaving port on 2nd May, followed by an expansive trek alongside Symphony X set to go ahead starting 10th May, 2022 in New York City, running through the month and ending 12th June in New Jersey. Find the full list of dates here: https://hakenmusic.com/tour/ 

2nd – 7th May – Port Caneveral, FL – Cruise to the Edge 

W/ Symphony X

10th May – New York, NY – Irving Plaza

11th May – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre

12th May – Worcester, MA – The Palladium

13th May – Quebec City, QC – Imperial Bell

14th May – Montreal, QC – Corona Theatre

15th May – Toronto, ON – The Danforth Music Hall

17th May – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre

18th May – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre

19th May – Chicago, IL – Park West

20th May – St Louis, MO – Red Flag

21st May – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater

23rd May – Denver, CO – The Oriental Theater

24th May – Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex

26th May – Seattle, WA – The Showbox

27th May – Vancouver, BC – The Rickshaw Theatre

28th May – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre

29th May – San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom

31st May – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory

1st June – Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco Theater

2nd June – Mesa, AZ – Nile Theater

4th June – Austin, TX – Empire Garage

5th June – Dallas, TX – Amplified Live

7th June – Atlanta, GA – Heaven at the Masquerade

8th June – Orlando, FL – The Plaza Live

10th June – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle

11th June – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage

12th June – Montclair, NJ – The Wellmont Theater

HAKEN are:

Ross Jennings

Richard Henshall

Charlie Griffiths

Pete Jones

Conner Green

Ray Hearne 

Haken announce new album ‘Virus’ / Launch first single ‘Prosthetic’

Progressive rockers Haken are excited to reveal their new studio album ‘Virus’, the follow-up to 2018’s acclaimed album ‘Vector’, will be released 5th June 2020. By way of introduction, the band have recorded a special video message to give some background to the record: 

Today also sees the launch of the album’s first single and opening track ‘Prosthetic’, with a video directed by Vicente Cordero. Watch & listen to this punchy opening salvo here: 

The band comments: “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.” 

Since releasing ‘Vector’ in October 2018, Haken 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 for their efforts too! All the while, they have been quietly, secretly working on the follow-up album, entitled ‘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 7 tracks revealing hints of influences from multiple genres, all intertwined with Haken’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”.

Longtime Haken collaborators, Blacklake, have designed the visuals and artwork and the album will be available as a Limited 2CD, Standard CD, Gatefold 2LP + CD & as Digital Album. Pre-order now here: https://haken.lnk.to/Virus

The track-listing is as follows:

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 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”. 

HAKEN are:

Ross Jennings

Richard Henshall

Charlie Griffiths

Diego Tejeida

Conner Green

Ray Hearne