Last week, Haken unveiled Prosthetic, the first single from their upcoming album, Virus. In response to its stellar reception amongst six-stringers, Kiesel-toting guitarist Charlie Griffiths has filmed a full retro-themed guitar playthrough of the track, demonstrating its flawlessly executed barrage of alternate picking.
But there's more! Griffiths has also shot a secondary video and shared a backing track and tab, which he hopes will inspire fans to create their own covers to send on to the band via social media.
"Since we released it last week, the response to Prosthetic has been unprecedented for us," Griffiths enthuses.
"It seems to have really hit a nerve with our guitar-playing fans in particular. I woke up on the morning we released the single and somebody had already posted a full playthrough!
"Since then, our inboxes have been a constant stream of people playing these riffs back at us! I guess one positive outcome of this crazy experience we’re all going through is that so many people are picking up their guitars and putting the hours in, and it’s great to see.
"We’d love to see more of it, so we’ve made an instructional VHS style playthrough of our own. For those who don’t remember 'before the internet’, videotapes were the only way you could see how things were actually played, so that aesthetic just looks right for guitar videos to me, and ties into the retro concept of the Virus album (yes, the title is purely coincidental!).
"I grew up as an '80s and '90s metalhead so there’s a lot of riffing influences from that era, as well as tips of the hat to my heroes! Specifically: Dino Cazeres, Dave Mustaine, Jeff Hanneman, Dimebag Darrell - and the solo has a touch of Andy LaRocque, from King Diamond.
"Hopefully, this will inspire more people to have a go and post their videos online and send them to us! I also tabbed the song out and made that available along with a backing track, which is below.
"You can play the tune on a seven string, but it’s also possible to adapt it to six-string B standard, or dropped B if you don’t have one. If you have a go, make sure to let us know on our socials, and we look forward to seeing you bring the riffs. Good luck!"
