Haken - Vector (2018) {Limited Edition}

After four previous studio albums, an EP, and a live set, England's Haken display their irrepressible desire to grow musically combined with sophisticated production aesthetics and a wider sonic palette that knows few boundaries. They established a beachhead with prog fans on 2010's Aquarius and 2011's Visions as they wed Dream Theater-esque riffs to an inventive harmonic prowess that recalled Gentle Giant's. 2013's The Mountain swung toward more accessible -- if no less complex -- arranging and songwriting that combined knotty jazz fusion, operatic vocal dynamics (à la Queen) and passionate metallic and hard rock playing. 2016's Affinity offered a wonderfully perverse take on '80s new wave and fused it to prog metal. Haken's constant sense of reinvention while also retaining their core sound has won them hundreds of thousands of fans.

Known for notoriously long albums, the band deliver a full concept set in under 45 minutes on Vector. The story line concerns a catatonic victim of a psychotic doctor who plays nefarious games with his mental state. Musically, this is the heaviest date Haken have issued. After the brief, brooding organ-and-effects intro piece "Clear," the anti-hero is introduced in the flailing, swinging drum-and-keyboard whirl of "The Good Doctor." What anchors the tune are Ross Jennings' melodic, expressive vocals. "Puzzle Box" delivers the first horizon-expanding event on the album as criminally under-celebrated drummer Ray Hearne furiously paces the group through time and key changes amid Diego Tejeida's kaleidoscopic keyboard runs and the bone-crunching guitar riffs of Rich Henshall and Charlie Griffiths, and mathy precision meets balls-out crash and burn. It's at once startlingly familiar and wonderfully disorienting, like a suite inside of eight minutes as Jennings soars above the mix furthering the plot, inserting shapeshifting character traits and describing horrific psychological states. At nearly 13 minutes long, "Veil" is a poster child for anthemic prog metal and the single track on this date where Haken indulge their unabashed worship of Dream Theater. It's a rockist puzzle piece of dazzling variety that furthers the album concept lyrically and Haken's musical viability. The stop-and-start riff-tastic guitar fury on "Nil by Mouth," has thundering, syncopated drums underscored and contrasted with Tejeida's wild, unfettered keyboard sonics. Tejeida also displays the dexterity of a jazz pianist in the closing single "A Cell Divides" -- a labyrinthine prog metal ride through speed and power with an orchestral backing that adds depth to sinister darkness, panic, and confusion in the story. Ultimately, Vector is breathtaking in imagination and execution. Haken's willingness to take chances keeps older fans in the fold because here, they've balanced a far more aggressive direction with more nuanced elements from each phase of their recorded development. Vector is at once a brave new chapter and a logical -- if surprising -- continuation of Haken's always expansive M.O.