Richard Henshall (1,050 views)

[ProgBoi]

Richard Henshall is one of the two guitarists of Haken, along with Charlie Griffiths. Henshall writes a great deal of the music in Haken, often playing many of the piano and additional keyboard parts both on the album and live, but he shares lead guitar duties with Griffiths (probably in part to his keyboard playing); while both are technically proficient players, Henshall seems to be the more melodic of the two, favoring bluesier scales and bends to Griffiths’ jazzier style and penchant for doubling keyboard parts. Henshall also released his solo album, The Cocoon, last year featuring members of Cynic, Bent Knee, Haken (fancy that, lol), and even Dream Theater, so if you like Haken you should give that a listen! 
I’m finishing up listening to The Cocoon and I’ve already given several listens to all of Haken’s albums (even Virus, which is very good), so I might make a few changes to the solos list and (hopefully) I can make a riffs list for Henshall as well (I’m assuming that he writes most, if not all, of the riffs since he writes pretty much all of the music; however I’m not sure if Charlie Griffiths or even Thomas MacLean, who played guitar in To-Mera, wrote any riffs so I’ll need to double check before I make anything). As for the solos list, I think it’s a pretty good start and covers a pretty good chunk of his work so far.
Also currently working on a separate list for Charlie since he’s a great guitarist too.

Best Solos:
1. Visions (Visions, 2011)
2. Portals (Visions, 2011)
3. Lapse (Affinity, 2016)
4. Messiah Complex, Pt. 5: Ectobius Rex (Virus, 2020)
5. Cocoon (The Cocoon, 2019)
6. Cockroach King (The Mountain, 2013)
7. Celestial Elixir (Aquarius, 2010)
8. Crystallised (Restoration, 2014)
9. Carousel (Virus, 2020)
10. Veil (Vector, 2018)
11. Atlas Stone (The Mountain, 2013)
12. The Architect (Affinity, 2016)
13. Aquarium (Aquarius, 2010)
14. 1985 (Affinity, 2016)
15. Insomnia (Visions, 2011)

[kuyashii]

I love Haken! Richard and are Charlie are one of my favorite guitarrist duos. I love the mix of both vintage and modern sounds and influences they bring to their music. Kinda wish they toned down the djenty stuff and favored more of the melodic classic prog influences on their music they used to explore more on the first Haken albums, but they have been impressively consistent since their debut. I wasn't that big on Vector once it came out but now after the release of Virus (which was a "catchier" one if you pardon the terrible pun) I've been revisiting it and learning to like it quite a lot. Both albums need more Diego though (which is a ridiculously talented keyboardist, he also deserves a thread IMO)

Still got to add the notes from Virus to Ross' thread btw