Lista de Bandas Metalcore The Human Abstract Digital Veil

I've been lying around waiting for SOMEBODY to review this album, but since no one has yet, I'll be the one to put my foot out there. Digital Veil is The Human Abstract's third full-length album. THA began their journey into metalcore with their amazing debut full-length entitled Nocturne in 2006. Two years later they would put out another full-length called Midheaven. I consider Midheaven one of the most disappointing sophomore albums to be released. It completely lacked all of the amazing and unique qualities about Nocturne such as the mastermind-like guitar playing. Maybe they weren't ready to put anything out that year, because the entire album sounded forced and utterly lacking emotion and color. The only thing Midheaven salvaged from Nocturne was the very impressive drumming, but that's only because it's Brett Powell.

So The Human Abstract would take an extra year to come up with a follow-up to their disappointing sophomore record. With that, comes Digital Veil, only this time around, we're met with a brand-new vocalist, Travis Richter, the vocalist of very famed Post Hardcore band From First to Last. So, knowing about From First to Last, one can expect a lot of pitch and emotion from the vocal standpoint. Digital Veil opens up with a very melodic intro that I would expect from In Flames or something of that sort. There's nothing too special about Elegiac, other than the fact that it really sets a fantastic, deep mood for the duration of the album. The next song starts off very melodic as well, and me being a huge fan of melodic metal, I am enjoying this very much at this point. One thing I do notice is a hell of a lot more growling from the vocalist, those of which are quite impressive. Not that they're anything ground-breaking, because they're your rather generic metalcore vocals, but the energy and emotion packed in them is fucking incredible. Another thing we're met with once again from Nocturne to Digital Veil is A.J. Minette's beautiful guitar playing, which is very classical oriented. His style of playing really draws you into the music as a whole and gets you incredibly addicted.

Moving on throughout the record, I notice a sort of...GROOVE. I found my head swaying, bopping, banging, and everything in between. This is picked up especially in the title track. The breakdown towards the end, which is also accompanied by Brett Powell's punishing intricacy, is groovy as hell! It's not "brutal" by any means, but it certainly got me moving, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Another note about Digital Veil, is that the clean vocals are very...I'm not sure how to explain them. They aren't exactly crisp and ear-piercing, but they provide you with a very deep and emotional vibe, which also brings me to another point. Digital Veil is PACKED with a bunch of different vibes. Sometimes you'll feel yourself in a trance-like state, other times you'll feel your mind going chaotic (which is probably provided by A.J's wicked playing style), and other times you won't know how to feel. One thing that is for sure is that you and your head will be moving at full force.

I believe the thing I liked most about Digital Veil (besides Brett Powell, but I'll get to that right after this) is how A.J does this walk-like soloing on top of the breakdowns, much like what you'll find Born of Osiris doing, and it's incredible. It also provides a sense of knowing what the fuck they're doing, because that is one of the biggest elements Midheaven lacked, any knowledge of what they wanted to get out of the damn thing. You can easily tell that The Human Abstract spent a lot of time working on Digital Veil. Not only because it took them three years to put the record out, but the main reason for this is the fact that you can almost FEEL they're blood, sweat, and tears flowing through the entire album. It is absolutely loaded with creativity, color, emotion, and basically everything Nocturne was famed for and EVERYTHING Midheaven severely lacked.

Now, the ultimate reason The Human Abstract is so fucking addicting, is their amazing drummer, Brett Powell. You can definitely tell Brett belongs in progressive style music, because he has an incredible nack for changing his tempo without affecting the rest of the band's. One moment he'll be playing something seemingly simple, then out of fucking nowhere he will throw in a completely colorful fill and then build off of that, and then do it all over again. This was the only characteristic Midheaven did not lack, because I don't think Brett could settle for anything less than stellar on his part. He knows he is the driving force behind the band's sound, and he's comfortable with that, because ,even in Midheaven, he can make anything sound remarkable (although the rest of the band absolutely butchered everything else in Midheaven). His style of playing is very rare in the metalcore genre, and he's definitely one of the top in the genre, alongside Miss May I's drummer and Matt Greiner, the elite of the bunch in August Burns Red.

So to conclude this monumental record, it's probably obvious this is getting a perfect 20/20. It may say 18/20, but that's only because I first listened to this back in late 2011, when I wasn't completely sold by the progressive element. Everything about this is stellar, and easily says that The Human Abstract are back at the top of their game.