It's potentially my interest in formal logic and Maslow's law of the instrument that makes me say this, but to me, prog is as much about creativity as it is about constraint. Every member in a prog band pulls their creative weight, but in doing so create concessions that other members must follow. A prog album is almost like a constraint-satisfaction problem in computer science, wherein the guitars are constrained to what the drums are doing, the drums are constrained to the guitars, and in all of this concession, a creative solution is born.
Haken has always felt like the best example of this; despite their compositional adventurousness, integrating jazz, electronic, traditional 70s prog, 80s heavy metal, new wave and more, their albums don't feel disjointed. Every album has its own unified character, the quirkiness of Aquarius, the dreamy surrealism of Visions, the 80s synth-pop influences in Affinity bringing to mind acts like Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra, the cold, sterile, atmospheric style in Vector and Virus and their down-tuned syncopated riffs bringing to mind Animals as Leaders and Meshuggah, it's precisely the fact they work so well together that makes their creativity shine.
While a band losing a member is a massive hit, it's doubly so for a prog band like Haken, where other members have to concede and add to the compositional style of one member. Just recently, two members of Haken, Charlie Griffiths and Conner Green, departed from the band, taking them down from 6 members to 4. Losing one third of your band members is going to cause obvious changes, and such a band would require a good bit of time to recuperate from it.
So, when I heard that Haken was coming out with a new EP titled In A Fever Dream, I was quite anxious about it. On one hand, I think an EP is the right call given the massive changes in lieu of a longer album. Dipping your toes in and easing in the changes with a smaller project is what I think a band should do, and I'm happy they did it. On the other hand, I didn't know if the EP would turn out good. Did it turn out good? I'd say it's some of Haken's worst work, but that's still a massively high bar given how good they've been throughout their career.
The sound is quite similar to Vector and Virus, with a far stronger electronic spine than both. You have angular guitars in weird time signatures, massive, sweeping synths, and Ross's emotional vocals. Some parts weirdly remind me of Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada; the intro to "Bleeding Sky", for example, with the sparse, lo-fi synths does remind me of the latter, for example. The drums vary in timbre, from a weird slightly 808-ish synthesized timbre in the latter part of the title track, and a weird metallic type of timbre on "Eclipsed By You" that reminds me a bit of "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball". There's a good bit of sparse, ambient synth parts throughout the album, which I don't mind at all, in honesty.
The more metallic metal parts, however, are where the album begins to show a few of its biggest problems. A lot of the riffs feel uninspired for Haken's standards, like they're scraps and trimmings from earlier albums. Tracks like "Delirium" and "Eclipsed By You" definitely feel like they were recorded in the Vector/Virus era and weren't released until now. They're not bad; it's still Haken and I love Haken, but it does really feel like Haken's compositional style is being unsuccessfully stifled by the more generic parts. It definitely sounds like a band experiencing massive changes immediately but still trying to put something out their fans would love, and I respect that.
I think one of the better harbingers for the Haken to come is Ross's vocals, shifting from his soaring cleans to harsh vocals, which he hadn't done (to my knowledge) since the debut album Aquarius. His harsh vocals are pretty good, too. People complained about how his vocals were compressed and had a lot of effects on them, and while I somewhat agree that they should let his voice breathe a good bit more on this EP, the filters do work sometimes. I just wish they used them less on here, but they do work. I'd like to hear those harsh vocals and a bit more of those filters with whatever Haken comes out with next.
To say the least, while I do think they're experiencing some growing pains, I'm not worried for Haken. All of the ingredients that make Haken what it is are there, however watered down they may be on this EP. In the context of Haken's entire discography, this is far from their best. In the context of Haken losing two of its members, it's honestly quite good. It could've gone far worse than how it did, and I'm pretty relieved this EP turned out the way it did. It's a 26 minute listen, and I recommend you give it a listen to make your own opinions; this EP's quite polarizing and I encourage you to give it a listen to make your own impressions. You can buy it from their Bandcamp here.
Final rating: 7/10