There has been some trepidation about HAKEN’s future after the early 2026 announcement that guitarist Charlie Griffiths, who had been on every studio album, and longtime bass maestro Conner Green had left the band. I couldn’t help but notice, by glancing at some online music forums, that some fans even thought this split would spell the creative end for the band, even though the band assured fans that new music was coming soon. Yeah, sure, Griffiths’ signature riffs had charged the band’s music with a distinct aura; if you listen to his solo material, it sure resonates thick with a somewhat HAKEN-like air. Still, we have seen bigger lineup changes in the prog realm without the bands going all belly-up in the aftermath. The new music we were promised finally hit the shelves in June, in the form of a new EP entitled “In A Fever Dream.” Musically, it did not turn out to be such a drastic departure from the band’s latest studio album “Fauna,” released in 2023, but it certainly marks the beginning of a new era for the band. A little less goofy and more djent-leaning direction, perhaps? It’s nigh impossible to judge by a few songs alone, but this new EP and these lineup changes certainly charged the band’s announcement about a show in Helsinki with an additional layer of anticipation; that’s for sure! The thing is, the band’s In A Fever Dream Tour 2026 stopped by the pedigree rock venue, Tavastia, in Helsinki on the Sunday evening of October 11th. As a nice bonus, their support band was none other than the British prog-metal senseis, IHLO, whose new “Legacy” album was one of the absolute highlights of last year. Personally, I was pretty stoked about the gig since I’d seen HAKEN only once before and their new EP slaps pretty hard; plus I’d never seen IHLO on stage – somehow I had missed all of their previous six shows in Finland this year! Well, at least that’s what their vocalist Andy Robison said at some point: this show was their seventh performance in this Nordic neck of the woods in this year alone! So, it seems an awful lot like the band loves to play here… and judging by the size of the crowd that had arrived early to the venue, the feeling was mutual. The evening was not sold out as far as I know, but the place was pretty packed already when IHLO started, and by the time HAKEN kicked off, it was even more so. Then again, what could have been a better way to spend a Sunday evening in the middle of October than by witnessing two magnificent bands perform quantum prog of the finest caliber? (Hint: not a thing!)
IHLO is a relatively new act on the British prog-metal map, so they only have two studio albums out. Thus, the setlist of five songs was split quite evenly across both outings. Okay, “Legacy” was visited by three songs, but the closer of the set – “Coalescence,” a song from the debut that the band had not played live for some time – was a 15-minute epic, so I’d say it counts as two songs. The band played the song for the first time this year, so I guess I should consider myself extra lucky. Then, as for the band’s performance, they were simply stunning. The combo of sparkling synth textures and mostly clean vocals sets IHLO nicely apart from some of their better-known peers, even though the guitar riffs and drums play out relatively standard djent fare. Sure, they must have been listening to TESSERACT a lot – that influence was even more prominently present on their 2019 debut album “Union” – but you won’t even mind; Robison is such an amazing vocalist also on stage that I reckon he could drop a cover rendition of some vintage TESSERACT banger like nothing to it. Following in the footsteps of their musical big brother from Milton Keynes, IHLO‘s music is all about wild rhythmic syncopations atop pretty straightforward meters instead of crazy time signatures that read like differential math. I guess that’s one of their secrets: creating a polyrhythmic feel without losing an inch of that diabolically delicious groove. Compared to those wild riff origamis of HAKEN, for instance, IHLO‘s music is almost danceable. At least your dance choreography to their prog bangers wouldn’t look like an epileptic seizure; just try shaking your booty to that crazy section in HAKEN‘s “Pareidolia,” and you’ll see what I mean… I didn’t see anyone dancing at Tavastia, but I did see a lot of heads bobbing to the music. Well, I guess the venue was becoming way too packed for a crazy Saturday Night Fever routine, anyway.
I was standing at the sweet spot near the mixing booth, as usual, but still, the live sound during IHLO‘s performance was nothing short of pristine – and I couldn’t help but notice that the light show seemed as though emphasizing the color theme from the cover art of “Legacy” – somewhat tangerine and ocean blue. The band played a pretty standard warm-up set in terms of its length, 45 minutes or so, but it sure felt way too short! So, if IHLO is going to keep visiting Finland every two months in the future, I think I’d better make sure not to miss them. This year has already been quite an amazing cornucopia of excellent concerts, and IHLO‘s performance certainly ranked among the best. I wonder what could be the secret behind all these wonderful British prog and prog-metal acts that keep coming from that silly little island state, but I doubt it is the baked beans that Robison joked about. I mean, I’ve been to the country once, and I tried that peculiar dish at some shady Bed&Breakfast type of place – and that stuff sure as hell traumatized me for life.
During the break between the bands, I noticed some festival flyers scattered about the tables. This double whammy of progressive metal was presented to us by the Ankea Festival organisation, and these flyers revealed some new additions to the next summer’s festival lineup. I regret not grabbing one of those flyers with me, because there does not seem to be anything official about these additions online. Damn! The thing is, with a festival lineup of such an all-killer-no-filler type, it looks like they’re seriously going to challenge all the other big festivals when it comes to the matter of who’s got the best bands. As much as I love Tuska and HMF, it’s beginning to look an awful lot like Ankea is becoming the number one festival to be in 2027!
When HAKEN started, I reckon most of their longtime fans were curious to see, first and foremost, how their new bassist Freddie Draper would fill the big boots left for him. Then, we were quite curious to see, of course, how the band would pull off these quantum-prog origamis with only one guitarist, Richard Henshall. Okay, I’m probably not the right person to judge the new live arrangements of the songs since I’d only seen them once before, plus this time, the band played songs from albums like “Virus” and “Vector,” which I’m not very familiar with. With the songs that they played from “Affinity” and “Fauna,” I couldn’t really tell the difference. Then again, I guess I have contaminated my fragile psyche with too much jazz, because I do not expect bands to play songs verbatim to the studio versions. In fact, I’m all in for live experimentation! I did notice, however, that the band did not play any of those extremely long songs – and they played no songs whatsoever from “The Mountain.” The setlist was most likely very carefully curated to mask any difficulties that stemmed from the recent lineup change. I believe their new bassist was/is a fan of the band, but still, it’s no walk in the park to learn a bunch of songs like these in a matter of a few months. Draper not only did a wonderful job, but it was also a joy to watch him play – the dude really enjoyed being on stage! The only thing that slightly confused me in the beginning of the set was that, from a distance, he looked like a spitting image of Gotye! So, for a moment, I couldn’t avoid thinking what the band would have made out of “Somebody That I Used to Know…”
The setlist was perhaps slightly streamlined in order to blend with the new songs more fluently as well – that is, less goofiness and more djenty riffs. Of course, for those longtime fans who view HAKEN‘s goofy GENTLE GIANT references to be an essential part of the band’s magic, this new direction may not be just as pleasing. IF these djent-heavy riffers on the new EP are to be taken as a hint of the band’s new direction, that is… If I overheard correctly, some fans noticed that the lack of those goofy songs rendered the band’s live energy somewhat moodier than before. Maybe they were right. Festival setlists tend to be quite different overall, compared to smaller venues, but HAKEN‘s performance at the Tuska Festival 2024 was indeed remarkably more laid-back. Then again, the band wore uniform Hawaii shirts there, which I reckon is guaranteed to make it extremely hard to appear moody. As per the title of the ongoing tour, the new HAKEN EP was obviously going to be front and center in the band’s set. They played each of those five new songs, and I must admit that some of these new songs started to make a lot more sense now that I heard them performed live. “In A Fever Dream” kicked off the set on a haunting footing, and “Bleeding Sky” also sounded every bit as awesome as on the EP. The deeper cuts may not have impressed me just as much, at first, but the live renditions of the songs – “Delirium,” “Eclipsed By You,” and “Lotus” – brought them to life in an entirely new way. I guess the band wrote them initially with live performances in mind. As for the rest of the set, it says something about the band’s catalog that they can choose not to play their biggest bangers, such as “Cockroach King” or “Pareidolia.” The setlist was still meticulously crafted with sublime pacing, spreading across their most recent albums from “Affinity” to “Fauna.” For some reason, I’m most familiar with the band’s early albums up to “Affinity,” and then with their most recent endeavors, “Fauna” and the new EP. So, the songs I didn’t recognize from those albums in between were all new and exciting for me. As if I needed to be any more blown away by the sheer magnitude of the band’s live brilliance. The first time I saw them, two years ago, I was stunned, pretty much speechless, and now they did it again. By way of some cosmic time dilation, the set did not feel like the gargantuan extravaganza it was. After the encore song, “Prosthetic,” I caught myself thinking, “So, that was it? No, it cannot be!” Then I looked at the time only to notice that, indeed, the band had already played for almost 90 minutes. Since both of these bands had this very same impact on my perception of time, I reckon music of this sort must have the ability to warp time. Now that I’ve seen two versions of the band on stage, I find it hard to relate to any of the concerns about HAKEN‘s ability to fire on all cylinders on stage anymore. Sure, they sounded slightly different this time, but in all the right ways – and if the new EP is pointing the way into a new creative direction with the djent factor turned up a notch, it’s nigh impossible to mind when the execution is of this caliber. Even as a five-piece, HAKEN sounded simply stunning live. They bounced back from the lineup changes pretty damn fast and furiously. On a more personal note, I guess it’s high time I finally checked those few HAKEN items still missing from my collection, because the songs they played off those albums were straight-up mind-melting bangers. On my way home, I accidentally bumped into another HAKEN fan from my hometown on the train. (I recognized the song from the video clip he’d shot at the venue with his cellphone) So, we discussed the gig’s finer details in depth all the way. He’d seen the band a few more times than me, so I asked him about his view of this new one-guitarist lineup. According to him, the only song where the absence of the second guitar was noticeable was “The Endless Knot.” Otherwise, he couldn’t tell the difference either – the energy levels from the band made up for the lack of those second-guitar parts. A great performance from these proggy Brits, once again. In short, IHLO and HAKEN both pulled off spectacular shows!
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Photos by Laureline Tilkin
IHLO SETLIST:
- Wraith
- Reanimate
- Source
- Cenotaph
- Coalescence
HAKEN SETLIST:
- In A Fever Dream
- Initiate
- Delirium
- Sempiternal Beings
- Bleeding Sky
- A Cell Divides
- The Endless Knot
- Eclipsed By You
- Invasion
- Nil By Mouth
- Lotus
- ENCORE: Prosthetic
