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English prog-metal ensemble Haken proceed their reliably regular output with the discharge of their seventh studio album Fauna, accessible by way of Inside Out on March 3.
Bolstered by the return of keyboardist Pete Jones and an enormous European tour with Between The Buried And Me, the authors of such bombastic and mind-bending cuts as “Cockroach King” and “Provoke” pull no punches on their newest acid journey to the senses.
“Nicely, firstly, thanks a lot for having fun with Fauna,” shared guitarist Richard Henshall in a sitdown with Steel Injection. “We have been caught on this bubble for the final couple of years while writing and recording it, and it is generally laborious to even be capable of gauge whether or not it is any good anymore by the top of the entire course of. So it has been nice listening to suggestions from fellow music lovers and it is at all times very promising when individuals are into what you’ve got been doing.”
The return of Jones, who collaborated with Haken in what Henshall affectionately refers to because the demo years, comes as a welcome shot of enthusiasm and creativity to a collective already bursting with the stuff.
“Yeah, it is actually nice working with Pete once more. He was within the band method again in the course of the demo years, so 2007, 2008 and just a little bit earlier than that, simply sort of crafting concepts collectively to file the demos. So we have recognized one another for a very long time now, 15 years or so. He went off to review theoretical physics for a bunch of years, so he is a really intelligent lad, lots cleverer than any of us [laughs]. For a begin, that sort of added an entire new dimension to the band dynamic,” Henshall shared of Jones, who he additional collaborated with via the Nova Collective.
“Over time he is matured as an individual clearly, but additionally his musical tastes have broadened. His enjoying is clearly very proficient, however when it comes to his tastes, he is actually expanded into sort of jazz influences and there is a very sturdy digital sound to his enjoying, which has actually added a sure sound to this album, and I hope he’ll keep it up on future albums as effectively.”
Whereas stopping wanting calling Fauna an idea album, the tracks are tethered along with a nod to the animal kingdom, with metaphorical strands connecting the Brits to their spirit animal of alternative, if you’ll.
“I really feel like possibly midway via the method of writing the tunes, we got here up with this concept of basing them on the animal kingdom, and we use completely different animals or completely different species as metaphors usually for, you recognize, issues which are happening within the human world or private experiences as effectively. And it actually proved to be fairly efficient as a result of the animal kingdom is such an imposing and eclectic factor.
“It actually mirrored the music on the album as a result of it is in all places and there is a number of completely different colours and moods happening which is similar to the animal kingdom.” Henshall explains, including that the writing course of, for him personally at the very least, took a way more close-to-home flip following the lack of his father.
“However yeah, we use the animals as metaphors and there is a complete bunch of various concepts throughout the album, even private experiences. For instance, my father handed away in the course of the means of writing a music. It was very difficult to take care of as a result of he’d been such a supportive determine for me as a musician. However not solely that, he was very supportive of the band.
“He was virtually just like the seventh member of the band in the course of the early years of Haken. He would ship out demos that we would made to all corners of the world without spending a dime and ship images of the band. He wrote just a little bio as effectively that he’d ship to everybody and he would by no means cost individuals, he’d simply do it without spending a dime.
“Like a real, true prog fan, he had a giant lengthy checklist of all of the Haken reveals that he’d been to and he’d seen us like over 100 instances. He was actually devoted to the trigger and he by no means as soon as wished to be on the visitor checklist. He’d at all times pay for the tickets as a result of he wished to help what we had been doing. And he knew that ticket gross sales meant that we may keep it up doing what we’re doing. So yeah, very, very unhappy when he handed away. So I made a decision to put in writing this music (‘Eyes of Ebony’) about him and I used the metaphor of the plight of the ultimate male white rhino to sort of inform that story.”
From the riff-heavy opener “Taurus” to the eclectic mashup “The Alphabet of Me” and the cathartic nearer “Eyes of Ebony”, Fauna is Haken at maybe its most dynamic and ferociously courageous. For Henshall himself, the artistic course of was therapeutic in a time the place clouds of grief hovered woefully near residence.
“It was very therapeutic, and it was a tough time. I’ve by no means handled grief on that degree earlier than. Simply the concept that one thing’s there and that it, it is gone the subsequent day and you’ll by no means fairly get that again. In order that was laborious to take care of and I felt writing the music was positively therapeutic and it healed me for certain,” Henshall admits candidly of Fauna, which he compares in scope and ambition to 2013’s The Mountain.
“Yeah, the album for me may be very particular, like I think about Fauna can be in ten years time,” Henshall shares of the tenth anniversary of The Mountain. “It was a pivotal second for us. We might simply signed to Inside Out information, so we had loads of consideration. And I keep in mind we put out ‘Cockroach King,’ and we did a unusual video with it, which actually caught loads of consideration. And even the likes of Jordan Rudess and Mike Portnoy heard of us at that time. And we’re like, ‘Whoa!’ I keep in mind even seeing a video of Rudess enjoying via a bunch of themes from The Mountain. It simply blew my thoughts. All of the sudden we had been thrown into the eye of a few of our heroes, so it was an actual turning level for the band, and it actually began a ball rolling, to be sincere.
“I like to think about Fauna virtually like a non secular associate to that album when it comes to the way in which we approached it. It was a really sort of virtually, I would not say free, nevertheless it was very liberal and we did not actually have a lot of a filter when it got here to writing. We had been similar to something goes, you recognize? It might be as wacky and zany as you want, something goes. And that actually resulted in it being very various and diversified. And I prefer to suppose Mountain has that comparable vibe and feeling while you take heed to it.”
Catch Haken on tour all through Europe with Between The Buried And Me and Cryptodira earlier than hitting North America on a run of headline dates with particular friends Arch Echo! Fauna is accessible worldwide March 3.
2/21 – Hamburg, GER – Gruenspan
2/22 – Leipzig, GER – Werk 2
2/23 – Berlin, GER – Heimathafen
2/24 – Warsaw, POL – Proxima
2/25 – Prague, CZE – Palac Akropolis
2/26 – Vienna, AUT – Simm Metropolis
2/28 – Budapest, HUN – Durer Kert
3/1 – Munich, GER – Freiheitshalle
3/2 – Karlsruhe, GER – Stadtmitte
3/3 – Aarau, SWI – Kiff Saal
3/4 – Roncade-Treviso, ITA – New AGE
3/5 – Milan, ITA – Alcatraz
3/6 – Lyon, FRA – Ninkasi Kao
3/8 – Barcelona, SPA – Razzmatazz 2
3/9 – Madrid, SPA – Mon
3/10 – Murcia, SPA – Garaje
3/11 Seville, SPA – Customized
3/12 Lisbon, POR – Lisboa ao Vivo
3/13 Porto, POR – Exhausting Membership
3/15 Toulouse, FRA – Connexion Stay
3/16 Nantes, FRA – Ferrailleur
3/17 Paris, FRA – Alhambra
3/19 Esch-sur-Alzette, LUX – Rockhal
3/20 Cologne, GER – Burgerhaus Stollwerck
3/21 Antwerp, BEL – Trix Membership
3/22 Tilburg, NET – 013
3/23 Bristol, UK – SWX
3/24 Manchester, UK – Academy 2
3/25 Glasgow, UK – Storage
3/26 London, UK – Shepherds Bush Empire
North American Tour:
5/3 – Nashville – TBA [Tickets]
5/4 – Cleveland – Home of Blues [Tickets]
5/5 – Toronto – Opera Home [Tickets]
5/6 – Montreal – Corona Theater [Tickets]
5/7 – Quebec Metropolis – Imperial Bell [Tickets]
5/9 – Boston – Paradise [Tickets]
5/10 – Philadelphia – TLA [Tickets]
5/11 – NYC – Le Poisson Rouge [Tickets]
5/12 – DC – The Black Cat [Tickets]
5/13 – Charlotte – Underground [Tickets]
5/14 – Fort Lauderdale – Tradition Room [Tickets]
5/15 – Orlando – The Beacham [Tickets]
5/17 – Atlanta – Terminal West [Tickets]
5/19 – Dallas – Granada Theater [Tickets]
5/20 – Austin – Come and Take it Stay [Tickets]
5/21 – El Paso – Lowbrow Palace [Tickets]
5/22 – Phoenix – The Nile [Tickets]
5/23 – San Diego – Brick by Brick [Tickets]
5/24 – LA – Regent Theater [Tickets]
5/25 – San Francisco – August Corridor [Tickets]
5/26 – Portland – Hawthorne Theater [Tickets]
5/27 – Seattle – Neptune Theater [Tickets]
5/28 – Vancouver – Rickshaw Theater [Tickets]
5/30 – SLC – Commonwealth Room [Tickets]
5/31 – Denver – Gothic Theater [Tickets]
6/1 – Lawrence – Granada Theater [Tickets]
6/2 – Minneapolis – Advantageous Line [Tickets]
6/3 – Chicago – Harmony Music Corridor [Tickets]
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