Virus (Haken album)

Virus is the sixth studio album by English progressive metal band Haken. It was released on 24 July 2020 (postponed three times, first from 5 June 2020, then from 19 June 2020 and finally from 10 July 2020) through Inside Out Music. According to the band's guitarist and primary songwriter, Richard Henshall, the album is loosely connected to their 2018 release Vector. As well as the latter, Virus was mixed by ex-Periphery bassist Adam "Nolly" Getgood and the artwork was created by long-time collaborators Blacklake. It is the last album featuring keyboardist Diego Tejeida, who left the band the following year.

The first single, "Prosthetic" was released on 3 April 2020, along with a music video. About the song, the band said:

Prosthetic was the first song we completed during the Virus writing sessions and we always felt it would be the perfect opener for the album. It's a very guitar heavy track with its roots in 80s thrash riffing, but with the unconventional rhythmic twists and turns we often like to explore in Haken. We sadly never had a Jeff Hanneman and Robert Fripp collaboration, but this song at least draws on inspiration from them both! Lyrically the song is a bridge between our two albums Vector and Virus.