A Journey with Haken: Humble beginnings to headlining the London Forum

After following a band for almost a decade, it’s hard to find anything ‘new’ to say about them. Watching a band go from this cool niche thing that no one has heard of playing tiny venues, to selling out some of the touring circuit venue staples of larger bands, having increased success after success with their studio work, it’s clear that getting a little sentimental is of no great issue when watching Haken headline the London Forum, with no support, and a venue packed full of fans. With many of them going the extra mile dressing up as animals – more on that later…

But where did it all begin? How did any of us even ‘discover’ Haken in the first place? Where did they come from?

Formed in 2007 spiralling out from a bunch of childhood friends Ross Jennings, Richard Henshall, and Matthew Marshall, before being teamed up with other childhood friends Ray Hearne and Peter Jones, they released a demo record deemed a cult favourite by many fans, Enter the 5th Dimension, which was finally made available on Bandcamp during the pandemic. After a few lineup changes with Peter and Matthew leaving, Charlie Griffiths and Diego Tejeida joined on, and the first ‘core’ lineup was solidified.

We were given Aquarius, and Visions, which upon reflection are incomparable works to modern Haken in sound and compositional style. One of the best small little windows into this era of their history has to be this clip of Ross recording some vocals for the Visions record in a very makeshift vocal booth – and yes, that is a duvet duct taped to a ceiling!

Next came The Mountain which was the fan favourite and cult hit for many fans for years until records with more ‘mainstream’ success Vector and Virus came along. Cockroach King has to get a mention here, as it has become a song they can’t get away without playing in their sets with well over 300 performances registered on setlist.fm. Thomas left the band, and Conner Green joined through online audition – curiously enough from encouragement by a member of Marbin, an act well known on the Cruise to the Edge music festival as the two of them studied in the same college. (If I’m remembering rightly from talking to Marbin earlier this year)

The band then revisited their demo record by refining some of the compositions into the Restoration EP, created another now legendary fan favourite Crystallised. Now playing small clubs on the regular, this is about the time that my own journey with the band began.

For me personally, like many bands I enjoy, it came from browsing the /r/progmetal subreddit. 10 years ago, there weren’t really the sort of communities that there are now for progressive metal artists. Traditional forums had mostly been sunsetted, and at the time I refused to engage with any Meta products, barely having any semblance of a digital presence on the internet. Although I later went back on that after realising that it was effectively impossible to pursue a career in music without engaging in the hostile and vapid world of mainstream social media – but that’s a different article…

Diving into that subreddit at such a pivotal age of music discovery for myself led to all sorts of discoveries like Fleshgod Apocalypse, Nightwish, Epica, Blind Guardian, Scar Symmetry, Leprous, for me it was the gateway to my present day music taste. What I didn’t realise my ears had been seeking for many years, all served up on a plate in one place. And at some point, an upcoming single to the record Affinity was posted.

It was this blend of synthwave meets heavy metal in a way I hadn’t quite heard before that drew me in. I remember spending one evening reading about the musician’s various influences that they used to have listed on the Haken website and trying to delve into what odd combination of artists would influence these musicians to create this kind of music. Turns out, somewhere between Infected Mushroom and Gentle Giant! Especially appealing to me, being someone that loved that ‘dubstep’ era, floating between Deadmau5, Approaching Nirvana, Noisestorm (long before Crab Rave…), and anything that UKF or Monstercat fancied releasing in their megamixes. There were elements of that in this heavy music that had the angry metal guitars that I fell in love with too. Who would have thought? Everything I loved served up on a plate.

So not having many if any friends at that time in my life that were interested in this sort of music, I decided to grab a ticket to fly solo to their show at the Garage, May 26th, 2016, having listened to the album a few times, but not really knowing what I got myself in for.

I placed myself right near the front and center like I always did, and settled into the show which focused near exclusively on Affinity and The Mountain. At the time, The Endless Knot was my favourite track, so having the set finish with that was a real treat, right up until the encoré.

I remember one specific encounter with another audience member who asked me if I’d ever seen them before, and I explained that I was there on a bit of a whim. She mentioned that I was in for a real treat with the finalé, which of course was Crystallised. It’s hard to explain how overwhelming that track was to hear live, but I was mesmerised, wondering when it was going to end, and finding each section of the composition more enthralling than the last as it went on, and on, and on, and on, and… Yes, the 20 minute track managed to hold my attention for it’s entirety which in itself is an achievement.

I ended up buying CD copies of Restoration and The Mountain, chatting to members of the band afterward, getting some bits and bobs signed, and realising that the music I wanted to listen to existed – and there were other people like me that enjoyed it.

I found myself delving deeper into other bands that summer, like Opeth, but also re-igniting my youth spent listening to Yes‘ Drama album exploring more of their discography too. Before I knew it, a web of prog was surrounding my everyday listening somewhat sparked off by that concert.

One other rather quaint but fleeting memory was of a Devin Townsend concert in 2019. I was unemployed at the time so turned up to the gig rather early to poke around and see what was going on. In the lobby of The Roundhouse in Camden, London, an unknown character clocked my Haken t-shirt and asked me how many times I’d seen the band. At that point I think my answer would have been 6, but the elusive man informed me that he had seen them well over 80 or 90 times. I was slightly sceptical, but then he introduced himself as Richard Henshall’s father! Things made a lot more sense after that point, with us having a brief conversation about the band, and how much we loved them. He faded off into the venue and I never saw him again, but it made me happy to see supportive parents coming along to the gigs.

As many fans now know, Richard’s father passed away a couple years after this, but ended up being immortalised through Richard’s writing on the Fauna track Eyes of Ebony.

Over the years I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen Haken, but it’s certainly in the double digits at least in several cities and countries – many times in passing at festivals I was already attending. They cemented themselves as staples all across the scene, all across the globe.

And now tonight, they find themselves back in London for a hometown show at the Forum! A 2300 cap venue that was near sold out, full of cameras, ready to film their next live DVD. With no support band, this was An Evening With Haken – and everyone in that room was there to see them.

As I sat in the photo pit taking the snaps that you see throughout this article, I couldn’t help but take a minute to stand at the side just admiring how many people were there, how many fans were engaged, moshing, dancing, headbanging, clapping, cheering, singing along. An unfathomable site almost 10 years ago when I first saw them performing live.

The set featured a playthrough of their latest record Fauna in full – even with some live trumpet thrown in during the track The Alphabet of Me – a poppier number that has been compared to Imagine Dragons before now.

Every note was in its rightful place it felt, the band were so tight in their playing being the well oiled machine that they are – with Ross playing up to the cameras, over exaggerating his now usual stage actions and moves.

The first half finishes off with Crystallised – which I was thankful for as a sort of cathartic sandwich between now and the past. Although we weren’t nearly done yet!

A brief break, and Haken come back to play what can only be described as a best-of set, playing at least one track from every record. Time went quickly as they highlighted well over 15 years of history before finishing with Visions – another one of the band’s 20 minute epics. And I shalln’t dive too deep in the show, as everyone will have the ability to experience its inevitable DVD release at some point in the near future.

With the night over, after a brief visit to Taylor Swift’s kebab shop – I left with a warm feeling in my heart. The modern progressive metal and progressive rock scene is in a great place. There are countless bands from all eras still going, still performing, still writing and releasing. ‘Newer’ bands are finding more widespread success and appeal, whilst there are numerous festivals supporting the scene.

This year has seen David Gilmour go on tour for the first time in years, Dream Theater reuniting with Mike Portnoy, a return of the Be Prog! My Friend festival in Spain, BEAT  touring 1980s King Crimson records in the States featuring an all-star lineup, an announcement for a new festival Prog Metal Mania happening in Munich next year, more niche artists being staged and platformed at festivals like Euroblast, Radar, and ArcTanGent, a possible new Symphony X album on the horizon? – the love and joy of this genre is flooding through the veins of many, and Haken have been a core part of its more mainstream resurgence.

We are living in somewhat of a golden age of prog at the moment. There’s quite simply too much music to choose from, from all eras. Concerts, albums, artists, reunion tours, it is utterly impossible to keep up – and I for one am thankful for that.