Style: Progressive Metal, Djent (Mixed Vocals, Mostly Clean Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Sleep Token, The Contortionist, Periphery, Spiritbox, Vola¹
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 15 July 2026

---

A couple months ago, our esteemed blog released a little Haken discography ranking that definitely did not generate any controversy at all… In that ranking, Haken’s newest output fared terribly, with 2023’s Fauna coming in seventh out of eight. This didn’t go over well with many fans of the band, which was admittedly a bit of a surprise to us. Even though The Subway didn’t enjoy Fauna as much as the masses, even outside of our ranks there has been overwhelming trepidation about the future of the band for whatever comes next for Haken, as guitarist Charlie Griffiths—who had been on every studio album—and longtime bassist Conner Green left the band.² The new EP, In a Fever Dream, is slated to be the start of a new era for Haken, one without an important songwriter/second guitarist. 

Haken’s identity has always revolved around being a bit goofy: That fact is obvious on early material with the random circus music on debut Aquarius, the immensely popular “Cockroach King” on The Mountain, and even the most recent trio of more djent-forward albums lean into the band’s zany side on occasion, like the quasi-rap song on Fauna (“Lovebite”). But no more. In a Fever Dream is slick. The songs no longer indulge in superfluous prog solos or embark on wacky tangents, favoring a to-the-point structure that emphasizes djenty breakdowns and flittering electronic elements between hooky choruses; the record comes across as formulaic, with all the songs having a predictable flow between the metal and electronic elements. Moreover, In a Fever Dream sees Haken performing with heightened sultry seriousness, capitalizing on the horny prog vibes in vogue from artists like Sleep Token and Spiritbox. While the band’s songwriting is at its tightest ever, I can’t help but feel Haken have lost a substantial portion of their soul—probably due to the absence of Griffith’s songwriting.

The most interesting, novel parts of In a Fever Dream explore a mixture of heavily atmospheric guitar layers, lilting falsetto, and delicate electronic elements, seen previously on “Earthlings” from Restoration. This directional shift feels natural for In a Fever Dream, as Haken are reduced to a single guitarist for the first time, leaving the prog metal showmanship and virtuosity de-emphasized on the EP out of necessity. The opener “In a Fever Dream” plays around with a trip-hop beat for several minutes before adding on more and more textural elements—interweaving vocal lines, crunchy, albeit sterile, guitars, swirling synths, and groovy drums. Other tracks follow a similar contour. “In a Fever Dream” continues to alternate between stripped back electronic minimalism and djenty percussive guitars, with the highlight of the entire EP taking place in the middle, as the toms play a complex polyrhythm while vocalist Ross Jennings whips out his first harsh vocals in a decade—to cinematic effect. Although the atmospheric direction leaves plenty of room for the band to continue exploring and refining the style, the heavy prog metal sections demand the most attention. For example, Jennings belts out a catchy chorus on “Delirium,” up there with the band’s best. And closing track “Lotus” spends the longest time of any song on the EP to build up the intensity from the electronic first principles, and the climactic release and subsequent resolution—culminating in slightly cliché, but fun, crowd chanted section—is simply solid songwriting, almost bordering on post-metal, a first for the band. In the general metal world, the songwriting of a track like “Lotus” is trite, but for Haken, it’s actually a breath of fresh air as they try something slightly different. Unfortunately, large chunks of the short EP feel like wasted space, the synthesizers and falsetto just filler between the actual substantive riffs.

The production, handled by George Lever (Sleep Token), is extremely polished. It suffers the Industry Standard brickwalling at points, as he often balances layers in the heavy sections by equalizing every instrument’s volume, but the clarity with which he switches between the moody electronic buildups and metal breakdowns is stellar. The overall product can feel a bit sterile, like cold surgical steel, but that fits Haken’s moodier, more mature, new identity. It seems Haken are taking heavy cues from Sleep Token, in production and mood, but I don’t think Jennings’ voice has the same charisma as Vessel’s, creating a bit of tension between attitude and execution—Jennings fit the sillier tone of the traditional prog metal better than the constant “sexy” falsetto used on In a Fever Dream. Additionally, at times, the vocal effects on In a Fever Dream are unwarranted; for instance, the weird garbling of his vocals on the chorus of “Bleeding Sky” mars the track, and it even sounds like Jennings is fed through some autotune in an off-putting way in other tracks. Mercifully, Haken keep enough of their overt progginess to avoid being completely watered down; the band aren’t yet entirely reduced to boring, inoffensive pop music… but they’re closing in on that fate. In a Fever Dream shares many traits with the Sleep Tokens and Spiritboxes of the world, as it hops on sanitized, pop-metal trends: the over-produced sound, trip-hop electronic elements, lack of variety, emphasis on choruses, excessive falsetto, and djenty guitar breakdowns. Haken succeed at what they seemingly attempt to do with In a Fever Dream, but it’s an inherently rather bland style of music.

After an informal poll of my peers, their consensus is that In a Fever Dream is pretty mediocre, near the bottom of the Haken discography.³ The band still have some tricks up their sleeves and are still consummate professionals, but the new direction often feels like throwaway tracks from the past couple albums. While some of my peers think In a Fever Dream is straight-up boring, I truthfully think it’s a mildly intriguing reinvention—at least something different for the band—with arguably the most novel ideas for Haken since Affinity. But In a Fever Dream is still a far cry from what Haken used to be. Frighteningly, the next album in the new era may see your favorite “second coming of Dream Theater” band turn into Sleep Token, with Haken continuing to chase a sound that’s currently popular. I hold onto a sliver of hope that the band will refine the best aspects of In a Fever Dream while turning the proginess up again. Haken continues to face a bit of an identity crisis, as expected in this transitional period; I still have anxieties about the band’s future.

---

Recommended tracks: In a Fever Dream, Eclipsed by You
You may also like: Richard Henshall, Jakub Zytecki, Karmanjakah
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: InsideOut Music

Haken is:
– Ross Jennings (Vocals)
– Richard Henshall (Guitars)
– Raymond Hearne (Drums)
– Pete Jones (Keyboards)
With:
– Adam Getgood (bass)
– Bryan Beller (bass)

1. I refuse to acquiesce to a band’s crappy stylistic choices, so I won’t capitalize Vola just as I won’t do all lowercase for In a Fever Dream and its song titles. ↩︎
2. Prior to Fauna, longtime keyboardist Diego Tejeida had also left Haken. ↩︎
3. This has nothing to do with In a Fever Dream being an EP; Restoration is beloved and placed third in our ranking of the discography. ↩︎