Written By Lucien Drake
Progressive metal fans woke up this week to the musical equivalent of being thrown headfirst into a seven-minute hallucination wrapped in polyrhythms, existential dread, and enough sonic atmosphere to suffocate a small city.
After three years of studio silence following 2023’s Fauna, Haken has officially returned with a brand-new single titled “In A Fever Dream” and honestly, this doesn’t feel like a simple comeback track.
It feels like a transformation.
Because underneath the swirling synth textures, slow-burning tension, and devastatingly heavy climactic payoff sits something much bigger:
a band rebuilding itself in real time.
The official visualizer for “In A Fever Dream”, created by Oli Kember, can be seen below.
Earlier this year, Haken shocked the progressive metal community by announcing the departure of longtime guitarist Charlie Griffiths and bassist Conner Green, two musicians who had become deeply embedded in the band’s modern identity over the last decade.
For a lesser prog band, that kind of lineup fracture might’ve triggered a cautious reset period filled with vague social media statements and promises about “the future.”
Instead, Haken responded by dropping a seven-minute progressive monster that basically screams:
“We’re still dangerous.”
And maybe even more dangerous now.
“In A Fever Dream” marks the first official release from Haken’s newly streamlined core lineup of Ross Jennings, Richard Henshall, Pete Jones, and Ray Hearne. More importantly, it reveals a dramatic sonic pivot that longtime listeners are already dissecting across prog forums like conspiracy theorists with music degrees.
Because the quirky neon-prog eccentricity of Fauna has largely vanished here.
Gone are many of the playful textures and retro-futuristic flourishes that defined portions of the band’s recent work. In their place sits something colder, denser, moodier, and emotionally heavier, a sound that feels less like “prog metal theater kids exploring jazz chords” and more like being trapped inside an anxiety attack inside a collapsing cyberpunk cathedral.
And honestly? It rules.
A massive reason for that shift appears to be the band’s decision to work with outside producer George Lever for the very first time in their career. Lever, best known for his crushingly atmospheric work with Sleep Token and Loathe, brings an entirely different sonic architecture into Haken’s universe.
You can hear it immediately.
The production on “In A Fever Dream” feels enormous in a way Haken never fully embraced before, thick low-end pressure, suffocating ambience, modern alternative-metal weight, and vocals that feel emotionally exposed instead of theatrically polished.
The result is a track that balances technical precision with something prog bands occasionally struggle to access:
actual emotional vulnerability.
And that’s where Haken suddenly becomes very interesting again.
Because after years of progressive metal bands competing to see who can fit the most time signatures into one measure without physically combusting, “In A Fever Dream” feels strangely human underneath all the complexity.
The song unfolds like a psychological spiral. It begins with restrained atmosphere and haunting vocal restraint before slowly mutating layer by layer into an explosive, crushing finale that sounds like someone losing a battle against their own subconscious in surround sound.
Also worth noting: because of Conner Green’s departure, the band brought in legendary bassist Bryan Beller for the recording sessions, yes, that Bryan Beller from Dethklok, The Aristocrats, and Joe Satriani fame.
Which honestly feels like the prog-metal equivalent of casually replacing your car battery with a nuclear reactor.
For musicians and gearheads alone, that collaboration is enough to trigger several weeks of internet analysis.
The bigger question now is what this single actually signals.
Because “In A Fever Dream” doesn’t sound like an isolated experiment. It sounds like the opening chapter of something larger, potentially darker, heavier, and far more emotionally direct than anything Haken has attempted before.
If this is the sonic foundation of a future 2026 or 2027 full-length release, then Haken may be entering one of the most fascinating reinventions of their entire career.
And honestly? In a genre overflowing with technically perfect bands that somehow say absolutely nothing emotionally, that evolution feels necessary.
Progressive music was never supposed to just impress people.
It was supposed to disturb them a little too.
HAKEN is:
Ross Jennings
Richard Henshall
Pete Jones
Ray Hearne
No algorithms. No fluff. No watered-down corporate metal coverage.
Subscribe to Metal Lair and get weekly underground features, Seven Deadly Songs, Deep Cuts, interviews, and original metal journalism sent directly to your inbox.
Join the patrons of Metal Lair
MetalLair.net is a metal zine muttering to itself about seo and blastbeats at 3 AM powered by caffeine, riffs, a severe lack of sleep, and a dog wondering why the human is still awake.
Sometimes it’s Kevin passing out mid Seven Deadly Songs.
Sometimes it’s digging up forgotten records no one else is talking about.
Always, it’s built for people who actually livethis music.
If that sounds like you, you’re already one of us.
Supporting Metal Lair means keeping it independent, loud, and real with no corporate filters, no watered-down takes. If you want to help keep it alive…
Become a patron of Metal Lair.