Review Summary: An ambitious and technically impressive debut marred by lackluster songwriting, but Nocturne is nothing if not unique. To this day, nothing to emerge from the metalcore scene sounds quite like it.
Every once in a while comes a band with more talent than they know what to do with – The Human Abstract is such a band. Based in LA, the progressive metal quintet hasn’t been the most consistent band in the world. They’ve been through a number of line-up changes throughout the years, i.e. the original singer leaving right before the release of
Nocturne, their bassist bailing during the recording of their sophomore slump
Midheaven, guitarist and backbone of the band A.J. Minette taking a break from metal after their debut (then returning for 2011’s
Digital Veil), rhythm guitarist Andrew Tapley fired during
Digital Veil’s recording sessions, etc. The point is, the band’s been through a number of internal struggles, and although their three LPs contain vastly different influences from these various musicians, the core talent is still there and has been present ever since their 2006 debut
Nocturne.
Nocturne contains my personal favorite THA line-up: A.J. Minette and Dean Herrera on lead and rhythm guitar respectively, Kenny Arehart on bass, Brett Powell on drums, and the infamous Nathan Ells on vocals. Minette is undoubtedly the heart of the band, writing most of the riffs by harnessing his ability to sweep, tap, and perform any other guitar lingo there is with ease (the solo in ‘Mea Culpa’ is the best example of his smooth sweeps, and happens to be the most epic moment of the album). His classical influence on acoustic guitar shines through in songs such as ‘Harbinger’, ‘Polaris’, and ‘Channel Detritus’. This is a metal record of course so there’s plenty of heaviness to be found. Namely, the breakdowns of ‘Self Portraits of the Instincts’, ‘Mea Culpa’, and ‘Vela, Together We Await the Storm’ are pretty much guaranteed a headbang upon listening, and the time signature changes in ‘Nocturne’ and ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ are as perplexing as they are impressive.
One of the most controversial aspects of
Nocturne is the presence of vocalist Nathan Ells. He joined the band last minute, replacing Nick Olaerts as frontman right before heading into the studio. You have to cut him some slack for learning all the songs so quickly, but his unique voice can pretty much define whether or not you like the band. Technically speaking, he’s not that great of a singer. His range is relatively stagnant and his tone ranges from decent to dreadful. The middle of ‘Nocturne’ when Nathan whines,
”No wonder here, just an echo resounding”, is just painful to listen to, and his crooning over some of the quiet acoustic passages is downright cringe-worthy. Screaming wise he’s actually solid, but when put next to Greg Puciato or Rody Walker he’s way out of his depth. Having said that, his bizarre contrast between the harsh and clean vocals is effective. For the most part he sings and screams in the appropriate places, often combining the two to add some extra beef; not to mention he can come up with some infectiously catchy choruses (try listening to ‘Polaris’ or ‘Self Portraits of the Instincts’ without having them pop up in the back of your head later on). Nathan has some screaming highlights too, like the breakdown on ‘Mea Culpa’ where he yells,
”I failed and I don’t know why!”, you can hear the emotion pouring from his vocal cords, as much as he’s straining it, and it sounds damn good.
Regardless of how you feel about the vocals, the instrumental work is the highlight of
Nocturne. The rhythm section is incredibly tight – no matter how many sweeps and taps A.J. is doing, the other members hold the foundation together like glue. Even the bass has its moments to show off, and usually while the lead guitar is harmonizing arpeggios, the rest of the members are doing something interesting underneath to add more layers to the sound. Drummer Brett Powell is probably second to A.J. when it comes to talent, throwing ridiculous fills in the most appropriate places and even having some speedy double bass work in ‘Echelons and Molotovs’. Where the band falls short is in the songwriting department. There are plenty of amazing riffs and ridiculous licks from a technical standpoint, but not many of the songs really
feel like songs; more like a bunch of ideas loosely connected by a repeating chorus. The first three tracks are notable culprits as they traverse from riff to riff and nary a smooth transition between them to provide some semblance of cohesion. It’s easy to manage these hiccups in short bursts, but when listening to the album in one sitting the spastic songwriting can get a bit tiresome.
At the time
Nocturne was released, The Human Abstract was noticeably a young and naïve band. However, their ambition and talent was painfully obvious to the point of it being easy to forgive their shortcomings. At the end of the day, among fellow progressive metalcore outfits and the abundance of pseudo-prog technical wank bands flooding the metal scene these days, not a one sounds quite like The Human Abstract did on
Nocturne.
Recommended Tracks:
➢ Self Portraits of the Instincts
➢ Crossing the Rubicon
➢ Mea Culpa
➢ Polaris
➢ Vela, Together We Await the Storm
