If there’s one thing you can count on from The Human Abstract (aside from great music), it’s drama: in 2011 alone, the band parted ways with a vocalist, a guitarist, a label, and two managers, to say nothing of all of the controversy in the band’s past. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone that after bassist Henry Selva took to Facebook at the very end of 2011 to announce the band was breaking up, a different member has now issued a statement to the contrary. Guitarist Dean Herrera posted the following message over the weekend on his Formspring page in response to the question, “Would you still have broken up if Travis hadn’t left?”:
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First week back from the holidays, and already the vocalist for one of the most famous metal bands of its generation has split from the band. What drama does the rest of the year hold? Pontificate in the comments section while you enjoy these stories from earlier in the week:
Next week brings more debuts, our special brand of 2012 release previews, and maybe, just maybe, if you’re real lucky, some snark, too. Weird for us, I know.
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 at 11:30am by Axl Rosenberg
I did a really good job of completely ignoring the metal world for the past two weeks, but when I finally glanced at my e-mails, I found dozens of reader tips directing to me a Facebook posting by The Human Abstract’s Henry Selva. You can read the entire statement after the jump, but the TLDNR version is “The Human Abstract is dunzo.” Which is terrific news if you hate great music.
Alright, I’m gonna go set up my slip n’ slide and get ready for the rain. Come hell or high water (pun intended), I promise you we will be back on Monday. See ya then.
Both MetalSucks and Lambgoat (and who knows how many other sites that haven’t reported it) received e-mails a few weeks ago which suggested that Richter didn’t want to leave his girlfriend behind when the band went on tour; now Richter himself has taken to Tumblr to give a slightly different explanation:
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 at 3:44pm by Axl Rosenberg
Earlier this week, we reported a rumor that The Human Abstract have parted ways with vocalist Travis Richter, and replaced him with “an unknown kid from San Diego.” Now, Metal Insider has broken the news that Richter is indeed out of the band, and that said unknown kid from San Diego is named Ryan Devlin, and sings in a band called Corelia.
That’s crappy news, because, as Vince said earlier this week, Richter is “a rad dude, a talented vocalist, and seemed like a great fit personality-wise with the rest of the guys.” I also got to seem him perform with the band in May, and he was a killer front man, too.
But based on the one Corelia song I’ve heard — “Treetops” (below), featuring Periphery’s Spencer Sotelo and also originally posted by Metal Insider — Devlin sounds like he should be able to handle the job. I guess now all we can do is wait and see if he ends up being the permanent new singer for THA or what.
The Human Abstract’s tour with Periphery, Textures, and The Contortionist starts on September 2. Get dates here.
Something must be in the water; metal bands are losing vocalist left and right.
A few months ago we heard rumors that The Human Abstract and vocalist Travis Richter had parted ways. Being the occasional good journalists that we are, before running said rumors as truth we contacted the dudes in the band who quickly got back to us and essentially said, “Nope, it’s BS. Things are fine with Travis.” The band made good on that promise by going out and kicking ass on tour with him in May and June.
So when this piece surfaced last week claiming that an “anonymous source” says Richter and the band have parted ways, we were instantly suspicious and once again contacted various authorities for comment (including not only members of THA but their manager). Only this time no one responded to us.
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 at 1:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Nathan Ells is a great singer, and I will always love the work he did with The Human Abstract, especially on Nocturne. So I was actually pretty stoked when a reader (who, given the tone and style of her e-mail, I think was actually either a poorly-disguised publicist or manager, but whatever) sent us an e-mail last night tipping us off to existence of Sunlit Ether, Ells’ new project with “former members of October Burning.” I’d never even heard of October Burning before, but it didn’t matter — ya pretty much had me at “Nathan Ells.”
And then I listened to the band.
Right now they have three songs available. They alternately sound like bad 90s alt metal or nu-core, neither of which is a style of music that would be my first, second, or tenth choice to listen to.
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 at 12:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
I Set My Friends On Fire’s new album, Astral Rejection, was produced by The Human Abstract vocalist Travis Richter, and features performances from former The Human Abstract guitarist Andrew Tapley; in fact, Tapley even appears in the band’s new video, “It Comes Naturally” (below). And you would think that the presence of two of the guys involved in the creation of Digital Veil, one of my favorite albums of the year, would mean that I Set My Friends On Fire suddenly stepped up their game, and made something listenable.
But you’d think wrong. I had a lot of love and respect for Richter and Tapley, but I Set My Friends On Fire still make me wanna set my ears on fire. I can’t believe this is a real band that real people listen to.
Thursday, June 30th, 2011 at 4:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
IT’S HANUKKAH IN ALMOST-JULY!!!
After two weeks of salivating over the mere thought, dates for Periphery’s first-ever headlining tour — which will feature support from The Human Abstract, The Contortionist, and, playing for the first time ever in North America, Textures — have been announced. This is certainly one of the can’t-miss tours of the fall; pretty much any one of these bands alone would be sufficient reason to buy a ticket, but together, they’re like one mighty, proggy, Voltron of modern metal.
Thursday, June 16th, 2011 at 2:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
Well THAT’S not a shitty line-up.
Periphery are gonna do their first-ever headlining trek starting in September. And we would all pretty much go no matter what, ’cause it’s Periphery, and Periphery rules.
But just to make extra, extra sure that you’re onboard, the band is bringing The Human Abstract, Textures, and The Contortionist along with them.
I can’t emphasize enough what a great bill that is. I know a lot of you who wanted to see THA on their most recent headlining tour didn’t get to, ’cause the tour was cut short due to the loss of a family member of one of the dudes in the band, so here will be your chance to finally get to see them do all that great Digital Veil material live. And it’s Textures’ first time in playing North America, which means, by gosh, you MUST MUST MUST go see them.
Tour dates haven’t been announced yet, but the second we have ‘em, you shall as well.
I saw The Human Abstract with their revamped line-up live for the first time this past Saturday night as part of their MetalSucks-sponsored “Pull Me From The Gallows Tour,” and holy crapticles, did they ever rule. This band is tighter than a newborn baby and has enough energy to power the sun. If you were at all concerned that THA would turn out to be the kind of group who can make great records but then can’t pull that shit off live, well, don’t be; they sounded more or less perfect.
Alas, the band has just announced that the remainder of the tour “has been cancelled due to a sudden and devastating loss to the THA family,” so if you didn’t get to see one of the initial dates, you’re out of luck. But the silver lining is that they’ve released a new video, for the song “Holographic Sight,” which was one of the tracks that got the crowd particularly worked up when I saw them. I’m gonna lie to you and say that it’s a great video (it’s basically reconfigured footage from a hip hop video, at least as far as I can tell), but it’s a great song, and if you happen to enjoy watching African American women with junk in their trunk shake shake what their momma gave ‘em, your appreciation for the clip will be that much greater. (And, by the way, if women shaking their ass for the camera is the kind of thing which your boss will find inappropriate for a work environment, don’t watch this ’til you get home, okay?)
The Human Abstract’s so-good-it-makes-me-wanna-punch-them-each-in-the-face Digital Veil is out now on eOne. We’re sending out good thoughts to the band during this difficult time, and we hope they get back out on the road real soon.
MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with The Human Abstract’s A.J. Minette…
Listening to The Human Abstract is like listening to a full classical symphony arranged for metal band instrumentation — it’s musical poetry where every note is a metaphor, every phrase an eloquent sentence, every song a story without the need for any lyrics at all. Sure, A.J. Minette can shred circles around plenty of players, and he can do so in a manner that’s instantly more tasteful, artful, and, most importantly, more purposeful than your garden variety shredder. But that’s not what makes Minette stand out; if you see The Human Abstract live, or even listen to them on record, you probably won’t be that impressed with his technical skills as a guitarist (though, to be sure, they do exist). Rather, what makes Minette our #8 Top Modern Metal Guitarist is his ear for composition and arrangement, his knack for making The Human Abstract’s songs into expertly constructed embodiments of melody and feeling that don’t rely on technicality to impress. He’s a master architect, a skilled carpenter, the subtle behind-the-scenes engineer of all that is The Human Abstract.
“Macho Man” Randy Savage has perished. My father and I were actually at his first wedding, which is to say, we were at Summer Slam ’91. Vince and I are so bummed right now… I don’t think I can even go outside. I need to curl up with YouTube and remember a time when the “Macho Man” really did seem invincible.
Next week crack the top ten of our ongoing guitarists list, and, at least to the best of my knowledge, do not aid any bands in playing a prank on the public. And hopefully no one else we liked better than Fred Durst dies.
Thursday, May 19th, 2011 at 11:30am by Axl Rosenberg
But that’s the name of the band’s new song — “The Conqueror.” It’s now streaming on Fit for an Autopsy’s Facebook page, assuming you’re willing to click the “like” button, which you should be, ’cause this band is br00tal, and you like br00tal things.
In case you didn’t read about Fit for an Autopsy the last time I wrote about them, they’re a new band that features former Through the Eyes of the Dead vocalist Nate Johnson, as well as guitarist Will Putney, who has already produced such killer records as The Human Abstract’s Digital Veil. Their debut album, The Process of Human Extermination (cover art above) is coming out June 21 on Black Market Activities, and features guest appearances from The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk, Tim Williams of Vision of Disorder/Bloodsimple fame, Full Blown Chaos’ Ray Mazzola, and The Human Abstract’s Travis Richter.
In other words, this is a record to which attention must be paid.
So headbang here, then come back and let us know what you think. My guess is that about half of you will accuse the band of playing generic deathcore, and the other half of you have ears.
Back in July of 2010, Axl and I visited The Human Abstract at the Machine Shop in New Jersey, where they were recording their new album, Digital Veil, with producer Will Putney. Between the (then) six members of the band and the two of us, there were way too many people to do one interview, so we ended up splitting up into groups and conducting three interviews. The first, with guitarist A.J. Minette (before he was a MetalSucks columnist) and vocalist Travis Richter was published in March; we posted the second interview, with since-departed guitarist Andrew Tapley and drummer Brett Powell, in April. Finally, today we present the final interview with guitarist Dean Herrera and bassist Henry Selva.
Herrera and Selva shared with us their thoughts on working with producer Will Putney, new vocalist Travis Richter, reuniting with guitarist A.J. Minette, their feelings on the band’s second record Midheaven, and some new music they’ve been digging.
In February Emmure’s Frankie Palmeri did a track by track breakdown of his band’s latest act of audio torture, Speaker of the Dead, for AP — and the results were nothing short of hilarious. As it turns out, not only is Palmeri stunningly untalented, but he’s also apparently inarticulate, unimaginative, and bizarrely obsessed with Street Fighter. Basically, he has all the makings of someone who will inadvertently provide us with joy for years and years to come.
Now The Human Abstract’s A.J. Minette has done a similar track by track breakdown of his band’s (fucking orgasmically incredible) latest, Digital Veil, for AP. And by “similar,” I mean insofar as they’re both dudes talking about albums on which they performed. Unfortunately, Minette is an intelligent, gifted dude who, at least as far as I can tell, does not believe that video games are spiritualist documents. For example, here is A.J.’s explanation of the song “Antebellum,” which has become my favorite track on the record:
This past December we gave you the heads up that Guy Kozowyk’s Black Market Activities had signed Fit for an Autopsy, the actually good deathcore band that features fromer Through the Eyes of the Dead vocalist Nate Johnson and guitarist Will Putney, who has already produced such killer records as The Human Abstract’s Digital Veil. Now The PRP tells us that the band’s debut album, The Process of Human Extermination, is complete and ready for release. It comes out June 21.
But wait! There’s more! As if the Johnson-Putney-Kozowyk connection wasn’t already enough to get you interested, the band has also enlisted some pretty excellent guests to appear on the record as well: besides Kozowyk himself (like you didn’t see that coming), Tim Williams of Vision of Disorder/Bloodsimple fame, Full Blown Chaos’ Ray Mazzola, and The Human Abstract’s Travis Richter all contributed vocals. So that sounds pretty enticing, to put it mildly.
Alas, there are no samples of Extermination available just yet — I mean, there’s a couple of songs on the band’s MySpace page, but I have no idea if those will appear on the album or not. In any case, I’m feeling really optimistic about this record… hopefully we’ll get to hear more soon.
The new Human Abstract album Digital Veil is so good. So, so good. And it just gets better with each listen; there’s so much happening from a musical perspective that it’s impossible to become bored. Have you checked it out yet? Grade A music of the highest caliber… the kind of compositions and arrangements most metal musicians wish they could write. Too bad for everyone else!
Even though The Human Abstract released a video for the Digital Veil title-track just 6 weeks ago, they’re already back with another one for “Patterns,” a less heavy but more intricate and classically-informed song. Whereas “Digital Veil” was a banger that served well to draw in first-time THA listeners that were all about the heavy, “Patterns” — with its three-part guitar motion, superb soloing and intricate overall orchestration — is a better representation of what the album is like as a whole. As for the video, the members of THA seem to have ditched their blank tank tops in favor of black tees… I guess they really black. I wonder if these two clips were filmed during the same session? Certainly possible.
The Human Abstract and Scale the Summit set out on the MetalSucks-sponsored “Pull Me From The Gallows Tour” across the U.S. starting May 13th. Dates here.
Back in July, Axl and I visited The Human Abstract at the Machine Shop in New Jersey, where they were recording their new album, Digital Veil, with producer Will Putney. Between the (then) six members of the band and the two of us, there were way too many people to do one interview, so we ended up splitting up into groups and conducting three interviews. The first, with guitarist A.J. Minette (before he was a MetalSucks columnist) and vocalist Travis Richter, was published a couple of weeks back; the second, with since-departed guitarist Andrew Tapley and drummer Brett Powell, follows below. We’ll run the final interview with guitarist Dean Herrera and bassist Henry Selva in the coming weeks.
Even though these interviews were conducted before the album was even completed, in a lot of ways they’re far more interesting now that Digital Veil is done and released. Powell and Tapley share some interesting thoughts on selecting and consequently working with producer Will Putney, how they chose Travis Richter and Henry Selva to fill the vacant vocalist and bassist spots and how A.J. came back to the band (and what his two-year stint as a classical guitar major at University of Southern California brought to the new record). These many months later, it’s especially interesting to read Tapley’s (and to a lesser extent Powell’s) take on how the band planned to procede with three guitarists. They also mouth off on “scene” bands and how as a young band they were coerced into doing things they didn’t necessarily want to do.
