Animal Magic

On their seventh studio album, Haken are ready to bust any pre-conceptions about where they might or might not fit musically. Fauna is inspired by the natural world and finds the progressive metal six-piece entering new musical territory. Multi-instrumentalist Richard Henshall and returning keyboard player Pete Jones reveal the story behind its creation and the “anything goes” attitude that helped to shape it.

Grant Moon

“Our music is pretty intense at times, and you need to have that kind of balance – if you bombard the listener with too much of the same mood or colour, they’re going to turn it off, and not come back.”Richard Henshall R ichard Henshall’s been in his home studio, trying to get his impressive hands around the guitar parts for Messiah Complex so it’s gig-ready. That five-part, 17-minute suite from Haken’s presciently titled 2020 release Virus was the brainchild of their drummer, Ray Hearne, and, says Henshall, “It’s easily our hardest song to play. Each of us has probably spent about a year trying to get it up to scratch. When he wrote it Ray just programmed the riffs with his fingers on a keyboard, but it’s almost impossible…

You're reading a preview of

Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 138

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.