Nathan Ells, who I have often regarded as being one of the best, most talented vocalists in metal today, is no longer in The Human Abstract. As said in a statement on the band's MySpace page;
It is time we update you on some very important news. First and foremost, The Human Abstract will no longer be working with Nathan Ells. We want to wish Nathan the very best in his future endeavors. With that being said, we are now looking for our new lead singer. To clue everyone in, our new singer must be into Chuck Norris, Van Damme and most importantly Steven Seagal movies. We will be holding public auditions, so if you have what it takes please reach us at THAvocalistsearch@gmail.com and we will respond to you with more information.
I literally just read this and figured I must write an article. Nathan Ells has one of the most impressive vocal ranges in this type of music. Also, the man was a genious song writer and an AMAZING performer. I know this because I've seen them live twice. And, I can't imagine a the band without him. Being a metal vocalist myself, I respect the things that Nathan does with his voice. I often try to sing his songs and wish I had that type of range. Just go buy a copy of Midheaven and see how awesome his voice is. That album really draws it out to it's finest. Whereas Nocturne focused more on the technical aspect of the band's music. Just watch them perform "A Violent Strike" and tell me the band can ever be the same without him.
Now, it's no secret that I have a man crush on The Human Abstract. The same way MetalSucks.net has a crush on Gojira, Hit Parader magazine has a crush on Slipknot and Kerrang! magazine has a crush on bands that suck. To the point that, when I was hanging out with them, and interviewing their guitarist, I had to stop myself from asking them "oh my God, why are you so awesome?" like a little star struck school girl meeting whats-his-face from Twilight.
So, anyway, The Human Abstract finally released their second video from the album Midheaven for the song "Counting Down The Days." And what a video it is. It kinda reminds me of the old Tool videos where they used stop-motion animation and didn't show the band. Except this shows the band. This is, in my opinion, their best video to date. It has a great storyline through-out the video. One I don't feel like explaining at the moment. The only annoying this about this video is, they completely butchered the intro to the song. I hate it when they do that.
Holy Hell, I don't even know where to start with this show. Prepare for what will probably be one of the longest posts ever to be on this site.
My friends Taylor, Kasey, and I all drove for 2 hours up to Charlotte to see To Speak Of Wolves, Vanna, IWRESTLEDABEARONCE, and Oh, Sleeper all open for one of my favorite bands of all time, The Human Abstract. Now, upon entering the first thing we notice is that Steven from IWRESTLEDABEARONCE is just kinda standing there by The Human Abstract's merch table. When I pointed out the fact that he is in IWRESTLEDABEARONCE Mr. Steven just gave me a big ol hug. I tried to take a picture with him but I was laughing and it turned out stupid. Oh well. I was asking about The Human Abstract's merch and Steven was like "All the good merch is over here." and directed me towards the IWABO merch table. Where I bought a shirt and a their self-titled CD, which I later got signed by all the members of the band. Taylor got his jacket signed by the members of IWABO and Nathan Ells (from The Human Abstract).
To make it easier on the reader, I shall condense To Speak Of Wolves' and Vanna's sets into one paragraph. They each had very short sets. Maybe 4 songs. Still pretty fun. Apparently the keyboardist of To Speak Of Wolves, who I was talking to before the show, is the guy who designed my Chimaira shirt, which I happened to be wearing on that night. Small world. Their set was pretty cool. I didn't really know much by them because I didn't think to check them out before hand. I think the whole 2 singer dynamic is always fun. Kinda like Vanna. Except, Vanna has the whole, lead singer does screams and guitarist does the clean-sung chorus... Dynamic. I got a video of them performing the song "Safe To Say" and put it on YouTube. The only anoying part about their sets is the annoying "hXc Dancing" kids.
Nothing really interesting happened in between Vanna's set and IWRESTLEDABONCE's set so...
Up next is the fabled IWRESTLEDABEARONCE. Everybody was talking about this band. And rightfully so. If you haven't seen this band live yet, you have to. I wanna see them again when they release their album and eventually go on a headlining tour. They played all the songs I wanted to hear from them, plus some new ones. All I can really say about this band is that they are just as awesome and funny and fun to watch as everybody says they are. Plus, the hXc kids were kept to a minimum, which is always good. Plus, I got a video of them playing "You Ain't No Family" which is also on YouTube.
After IWABO's set we snuck backstage in hopes to get a picture with the band. We hung out for a little while until security kicked us out. Tear. But, luckily I was still able to get a picture with Krista from IWABO, so I was happy.
After the fun of that, we walked to the stage because is was about time for Oh, Sleeper to start playing. Now, I don't know much about this band except the fact that they're a christian band and once did a tour with The Showdown. They were better than I expected. Well, heavier than I expected. Some really classic metal concidering I just sat through 2 bands that at times sound kinda emo and, ya know, IWABO. Another band that didn't have a lot of hXc dancing. Just some good ole fashioned metal energy. Good band worth checking out.
After their set, the only interesting thing that happened was catching Nathan Ells, the singer from The Human Abstract, for a second to remind him about the interview. He was kinda busy so he was like, rushing thru.
So, we quickly went to the stage because it was practically time for the main attraction, The Human Abstract, to finally take the stage. The band opened with "Self Portraits of The Instincts" off their first album. A song which, I didn't even think they were gonna play live. The band played a lot more songs off the first album than I thought they were gonna. The only songs they played off of the new album, Midheaven, were "A Violent Strike" and "Breathing Life Into Machines." Now, don't get me wrong, those are two songs I love. I think they decided not to play a lot of songs from the new album because those songs are softer and maybe they thought that because it was a heavy show, they had to play their heavy songs. Ah well. Amazing show nonetheless. All the rest of the bands that were on the tour got up on stage and rocked out during the ends of "Nocturne" and "Vela, Together We Await The Storm."
After that show, I was pretty wiped out but, wasn't about to forget about the interview. So, I waited and Nathan came out with Krista from IWABO on his arm talking about the best girlfriend ever. Maybe they're dating? I don't know. Let's start the rumor, shall we? Anyway, he said he'd be right back and was quikly ambushed by fans and dissapeared. So we hung out for a while. I got my Human Abstract poster signed by a few members. We went outside to wait for my sister who informed us that it would be about an hour or so. I was completely ok with this. This meant that I got to spend more time hanging out with the bands. Taylor and Kasey were less enthused. Oh well. We were waiting outside, talking to the dudes from To Speak Of Wolves, and Vanna. Really cool guys. Then, Nathan came out with a highly intoxicated Krista. I hung out with them for a while. Just laughing at the random things that came out of Krista's mouth. Talking about things like the Barnical Dino Christ. Fun stuff. Then, Krista and Nathan went back inside and I was waiting for my interview and the nice dude from Oh, Sleeper saw this and set it up with the guitarist, Dean. But, I believe I told you this story. So, we did the interview, in a nutshell, waited for my sister and went home. It was so amazing hanging out with all the bands.
View my interview with Dean Herrera from The Human Abstract HERE. And, below check out a video I took from the show of The Human Abstract performing "Nocturne."
Not only is this the first interview I'm posting on this site. It's my first ever video interview. This is exciting. I'm glad all four of my readers get to join in this moment with me.
After their show in Charlotte, NC, I got to meet up with the lead guitarist of The Human Abstract, Dean Herrera. Now, the original interview was supposed to be with vocalist Nathan Ells but, he appeared to be busy. The singer for Oh, Sleeper noticed me waiting on Nathan and started alerting people and asking where he was an all that. After about 10 minutes he walks up to me and says "Is it ok if Dean does the interview instead? We can't seem to find Nathan." I was like Hell yeah. Even though I was slightly less prepared for this interview than I would have been with Nathan. But, I think it turned out fine. Some of my questions may seem a tad random. Like, how I go from talking about touring to talking about the album to talking about writing processes etc. But, Dean seemed cool with it. I warned him before hand how unprofessional I am.
Now, I would like to say you may have noticed that this is not a YouTube video. This is due to a copywrite claim by the stupid WMG... What exactly is WMG, anyway? Oh well, good thing this blog has it's own video player.
I would like to thank Dean for agreeing to the interview on literally no notice. And, of course the guy from Oh, Sleeper for setting this up for me. All background noise is provided to us by the nice people in IWRESTLEDABEARONCE. I will be writing a show review within the next week. I spent all last week editing this video. Enjoy.
Nathan Ells, who I have often regarded as being one of the best, most talented vocalists in metal today, is no longer in The Human Abstract. As said in a statement on the band's MySpace page;
