BEHIND THE MUSIC

Richard Henshall is acclaimed for his work as founding member of progressive metal juggernaut Haken. The band have 5 full length albums, 1 EP and a Live DVD in their catalogue including the celebrated ‘The Mountain’ (InsideOut records, 2013) and their most recent offering ‘Vector’ (Sony/InsideOut, 2018). Henshall is a Strandberg associate artist and endorses Dunlop Picks and Ernie Ball strings. He was featured in Music Radar’s ’11 best prog guitarist in the world right now’ and Guitar World’s ‘15 of prog-rocks best guitarist through the years’

In 2014, Henshall joined forces with Between the Buried and Me’s Dan Briggs and formed Nova Collective. Together they wrote the critically acclaimed ‘The Further Side’, which draws influences from the likes of Chick Corea and Mahavishnu Orchestra. In 2017, Henshall, alongside his Haken band mates, featured in ‘Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress’ performing the songs of Dream Theater for a year of very special shows around the world.

In 2019, the multi-instrumentalist completed work on his ambitious debut solo album, entitled ‘The Cocoon’. The music ranges from dense polyrhythmic passages to delicate minimalistic interludes and features Henshall’s trademark guitar and keyboard playing throughout along with his debut performance as a lead vocalist. Prog Radar described it as “a truly impressive release and one that shows Richard at the height of his creative powers.” Completing the line-up for the album are Conner Green (Haken) on bass and Matthew Lynch (Cynic and Nova Collective) on drums. The album also features a stellar cast of guests including Jordan Rudess, Marco Sfogli and David Maxim Micic. The multi layered, richly textured and often heart-wrenching album represents four years of creative input from Henshall  and draws inspiration from artists such as Bon Iver, Meshuggah, Squarepusher and Tigran Hamasyan, which has resulted in, arguably, his most ambitious and eclectic work to date.