In the middle of the Corona crisis Haken release an album called "Virus" as if they had a premonition of the upcoming pandemic. Lyrically extremely exciting, it follows an extremely hard and uncompromising path musically. Is the band putting their prog claim on the back burner with this? Which virus got Haken there?
The times of Corona are hard enough for all of us. Now, with their new album "Virus", Haken are putting their finger in the wound even more. But unintentionally, because the album was written as a sequel to its predecessor "Vector" (2018) long before the Covid 19 pandemic. It tells the further story of the "Cockroach King", who first appeared on the album "The Mountain" (2013) in the track of the same name, one of the most famous and fascinating songs of the band. We felt songwriter, guitarist and keyboarder Richard Henshall as well as the hook virus.
eclipsed: I guess hooks didn't see Covid-19 coming? How did you do considering the crisis and the lockdown?
Richard Henshall: Oh yes, the thing with the album title "Virus" is rather unfortunate timing. It had been clear for two years that we would call the successor of "Vector" that way. In view of the pandemic, you feel like you're on another planet now. We had just been on an American tour with Devin Townsend and had to break it off abruptly. Since then we have practically never left the house, but have used the time to produce videos for the album and other musical creativity
eclipsed: Are you afraid that the album will be perceived negatively in the light of the Corona crisis?
Henshall: We very much hope that this will not be the case, because it is a pure coincidence. The title "virus" is just a kind of metaphor for the weaknesses of human nature and society and how self-destructive they seem
eclipsed: "Virus" is the sequel to the previous album "Vector", which is about the development of the "Cockroach King". Did you already have all this in mind when you originally wrote this great song?
Henshall: It was always one of the favourite songs of our fans and has passed the test of time, so it has been with us all these years. There is so much in this song that we wanted to develop and tell it further
