Haken – Vector

I’d recommend reading this along with listening to the album, following it song by song. Bear in mind this is simply my interpretation.

This album is the audio version of one of those really old monster movies from the 30s; it sounds gothic and ominous, it’s short and punchy and it has a suitably halloween-y concept to go along with it. Honestly one of my favourite prog releases of all time, and it only came out just over a month ago. Let’s jump into the weird-as-hell story this album tells.

Clear

A 2-minute instrumental intro track that sets the mood perfectly for the rest of the album. Mournful dark synths and a children’s choir create the atmosphere you’d expect to feel stood outside of Dracula’s castle, and it sets the journey off to a brilliant start.

The Good Doctor

Here we are introduced to our villain, Dr. Rex. works at Mountview institution, a mental asylum (which is named as such to reference the band’s 2013 album ‘The Mountain’). The scene is set: inmates screaming in their beds, nurses crying for assistance. However one of the inmates is completely silent; this patient has become catatonic after a psychotic break. This patient is our protagonist. Dr. Rex, or ‘The Good Doctor’ as he’s also referred to in this song, is drawn to this man; he stands out from the rest of the screaming inmates. Rex looks at him, smiles, and tells him that “it’s time for a game“.

This is where I’m going to put my theory forward, which I’ll put in italics to indicate that it’s not confirmed. It may or may not be true, but it’s a shared thought amongst the Haken fanbase – the protagonist of this album is the same that we follow in the album ‘Visions’. Here’s a very quick sum-up of the story that’s told in that album:

A child has a premonition of his own murder, goes through life trying to find his eventual killer, breaks down mentally along the way (after some casual travelling-through-dreams, no big deal), only to find that when the time of his murder finally comes, the man shoots a child he believed to have been the killer. The child was, in true sci-fi fashion, the protagonist as a boy – the same boy that had the premonition – and the cycle continues.

The theory goes that the man from Visions didn’t in fact kill himself as a child, but instead became paranoid and went psychotic searching for the person that he thought was going to kill him. He just killed an innocent boy, went through a trial and was committed to a mental hospital – Mountview Institution. So, the catatonic patient we meet in The Good Doctor and follow through the rest of Vector could very well be the same man that we follow in Visions. This is backed up by the fact that at the end of the snippets of the song Puzzle Box that the band put out, in which a series of tests are carried out trying to find a solution to said puzzle box, the words ‘V.I.S.I.O.N.S. Foundation can be seen (as well as the logo for Mountview Institution at the start of the videos). Cool, huh?

Dr. Rex proceeds to treat the patient with electroconvulsive therapy, a treatment for major depressive disorders such as catatonia, which our protagonist suffers from. However we know that Dr. Rex is deriving pleasure from electrocuting the patient – he has a sick fascination with human testing and torture.

These experiments are causing the patient’s mind to spark, and vague memories of his broken life flicker in and out (this could also tie into the Vector/Visions theory since it mentions that he has a broken life to remember).

At this point we are shown what Rex’s true intentions are – to subdue and make sure he has control over the patient. The Good Doctor has plans for this man, and he doesn’t want any secrets getting out.

Puzzle Box

Here we switch to the perspective of our protagonist, the patient. The inmates of Mountview Institution are kept indoors day and night, and all our protagonist can do is think. He is aware of vague memories coming to him, but he can’t pin anything down. At this point, after Dr. Rex’s electroconvulsive therapy, the patient’s senses have been subdued.

Although he can’t pin any full memories down, he knows he’s done something terribly wrong, and it’s eating away at him (this again ties into the Vector/Visions theory because it confirms this patient has done something awful in his past). It’s here that we’re also introduced to the theme of parasites; the lyrics describe the patient feeling like a parasite is leeching on the guilt he feels. This parasite is Dr. Rex, who is taking advantage of the patient in his catatonic state.

The patient can’t solve the puzzle in his head. He feels like he is forever away from being able to understand what happened in his past, and how he’s going to get out of his current situation. However, he feels like he already knows what his future entails, and he knows he is under the control of Dr. Rex (the lyric referring to the patient knowing his future is yet another reference to Visions, where the boy had a premonition of his own death).

At this point the patient loses all perception of what’s going on in his mind, and all sense of self-worth and existence disappears. However in this state he realises that the truth in his mind will soon be revealed and he will eventually be freed. A reference to ‘reflections in the amber to be found’ comes up here, which will make sense later – just remember that amber was mentioned. The patient felt like he might be trapped forever, but now he sees ‘the cracks of time begin to show’ (a possible reference to the time-bending that goes on in Visions?). He feels trapped and tortured now, but he now knows it’ll pass and he’s waiting.

He feels a beast awakening inside of him; the consequences of his past wrongdoings. He feels memories erupting in his mind, the earth beneath his feet trembling. His eyes are raw, his thoughts are loud, and he’s scared. He knows what he did, and he deeply regrets it. He longs for respect but knows he doesn’t deserve it. He’s disconnected from the outside world and he knows he’ll stay trapped inside his own mind ‘until the cells divide‘.

The patient starts to feel depressed. He doesn’t see how telling the truth about anything will help, and he doesn’t feel like he will ever recover because life is so short.

Veil

The patient is truly depressed; he can’t deal with the terrible things he has done. He’s pleading for help. However, as well as blaming himself for his situation, he also blames Dr. Rex for torturing him (understandable). He feels like he can’t escape the doctor, so he’s given up trying.

This is where things get weird, so buckle in. Rex has taken the patient to a graveyard outside Mountview Institution. It’s the middle of the night. The doctor begins digging a grave that seems to have been there for centuries. Rex then reveals the remnants of a carcass – the carcass of a giant cockroach. The patient loses control once more as the doctor carries on with his dark and twisted plan.

Back inside his own head, the patient realises that he needs to face his fears in order to escape himself, but he can’t bring himself to that point. He also realises that he relied on people in his past for his own personal gain, and was greedy. Maybe he deserves what he’s getting.

Dr. Rex sees the patient pleading for help and approaches him. The doctor tells the patient that if he stays close, ‘under [his] cozy wings‘, then he will be under no danger, and he can desire whatever he wants. Think the Dark Side in Star Wars. The patient begins to trust Dr. Rex, asking to be healed, for him to take the pain away, to be told if he’s completely lost. The patient asks Rex ‘how to use those compound eyes‘, meaning he wants to know what the next step in Dr. Rex’s plan for him is. He needs guidance and only sees it here, with Rex.

Nil by Mouth

Dr. Rex is carrying out the next step in his experiment. This instrumental track represents the insanity the patient feels, and the insanity of Dr. Rex and his plan. It portrays a true sense of chaos, but also by the end a feeling of power and elation, as if truth has been found.

Host

After this chaos and elation through Rex’s experiment, the patient finds himself buried underground in the graveyard, worms caressing his head. Complete silence surrounds him; he suddenly becomes aware that his former life is ending. He is dying here underground to give way to his new birth. He is no longer scared – he’s finally at peace. He’s learned from his past mistakes.

The patient now sinks into the earth, his skin and bones feeding the soil. It’s painful, but he feels transcendence.

A Cell Divides

The patient is now reborn from the earth. The amber falls away; he is in immense pain from this transformation. Dr. Rex has twisted the patient into a cockroach-human hybrid, ‘a horrifying violation of a human form‘. The mutation is overriding the patient’s body. Dr. Rex sees great beauty in his creation; he sees grace in the imperfection. He will keep the patient safe, always close to his heart.

–

Bet you didn’t expect that doing into this. This album is mental, and I love it for that. It doesn’t hold back – it just goes for the story 100%, and it works amazingly. I love the way the album feels like a 30s gothic horror, and the story really suits that too. Adore this album, and can’t wait to see what they do next. Now time to go and listen to this one again. Hope you enjoyed reading this, and hope you enjoy the album as much as I do.

– Kane