HAKEN

Virus INSIDEOUT MUSIC

Progressive-minded metallers shake up their bag of tricks

When Haken released

Prosthetic, the 80s thrashinfluenced single from their sixth record, Virus, it seemed they were picking up where 2018’s Vector left off. But Haken haven’t become the leading lights of modern progressive metal by making the same record twice. On Virus, they’ve created a phantasmagoric landscape that celebrates the myriad elements, and surprises, of their now trademark sound. Invasion and Carousel are built on huge accessible hooks, underpinned by dextrous acrobatics, and album closer

Only Stars is stark, exposed and shivers like a lost Radiohead classic. But it’s the five-part centrepiece,

Messiah Complex, that will have fans grinning earto-ear: a boundary-free rollercoaster of juddering riffs, dizzying time shifts, spontaneous bursts of jazz and 8-bit power-ups that revisit the band’s kooky Cockroach King days. Virus

is yet another home run from a band who are in constant motion. ■■■■■■■■■■

FOR FANS OF: Between The Buried And Me, King Crimson, Tesseract

DANNII LEIVERS