Review Summary: Overall unsatisfying and far too short
EDIT: I recently got a better copy of this CD and listened to it on better speakers. I bumped the rating up to 2.5 because the album sounds (sonically) better than I thought before, but still lacks in songwriting and content.
The story of the Human Abstract is a sad one. Their 2006 debut Nocturne was, although immature and over-indulguent at times, still a solid piece of metal from a promising young band with a fresh new take on metalcore. But after losing guitarist A.J. Minnette, the band failed to follow up, producing 2008's Midheaven, which was like a festering turd wrapped in egoism and musical half-assery. The band had a chance to redeem itself with this album after firing Nathan, but, despite making a noble attempt, they ultimately failed. The band has hence broken up and with several members pursuing higher education, a reunion is unlikely (yes I follow most of the members on facebook...don't judge).
I am not trying to be a contrarian or to "play devil's advocate", but the fact is that I really don't understand why this album got such good reviews, because it is NOT that good. Awful? No. There are some good parts and compared to the band's abysmal previous album Midheaven, Digital Veil is a decent comeback. But al things considered, this is a pretty mediocre release. Here's why:
The biggest problem with this album is that it's WAY TOO SHORT! At 36 minutes, it's certainly on the short side, especially for a non-punk release. There are only 8 tracks, which would be ok for a more proggy-band, but considering most of the songs average about 4 minutes (except for the mini-epic Antebellum), this album simply does not deliver enough music to be deserving of a full-album price. I paid 9.99 on iTunes and felt a little ripped off, and yet I saw the CD on sale for as much as $13 in some places. Yikes! Now I now that the band doesn't set the prices, but since they released it as a full length (and not an EP), I do feel like they owe it to the fans to make a little more music to make it worth paying full-length price.
Now, before you say "quality-over-quanity" or something like that, let it be known that I would be forgiving of a short album if the content was solid. But it isn't. It's hard to pin down the exact reasons, but Digital Veil just isn't that good. For one, Travis Richter (the new vocalist) is pretty lackluster. His clean vocals are outright bad at times, such as the warbly "We don't dress for miracles anymore" in Complex Terms (although, I guess it beats auto-tuning). And his growls, although better, are nothing to write home about. You'll notice that at times, his vocals are pretty low in the mix, possibly to mask how lackluster they are. Travis is a great performer and a cool guy, but, let's be honest, not that great of a vocalist.
As for the instruments, there's just something weird going on. The rhythm section doesn't seem nearly as crisp and together as it did in Nocturne, and the guitar leads, although good at times, just aren't impressive overall. In fact, at times they seem outright sloppy, such as the opening riff in the title track. The drums sound alright, considering that Brett Powell's style has always been a little less rigid than other metalcore drummers. But people praised this album as being "polished", and I just don't see that. Songs like Antebellum and Digital Veil having promising structure but somehow just don't sound truly together.
So what's good about this album? Well, it doesn't suffer the same cheesiness as MidHeaven and AJ Minnette's neo-classical shreds aren't as constant and in-your-face as they were in Nocturne (although personally I enjoyed a lot of that). There are some good tracks too. Faust is driving and anthemic, and Antebellum is a nice little civil-war inspired mini-epic (essentially this album's "Power Ballad"). Horizon to Zenith as a fun little sing-song with a cool off-rythm interlude. But beyond that, most of the tracks are only ok at best. Complex terms just doesn't seem to flow as a song and Holographic Sight is just bad.
I get the impression that the band tried pretty hard to make this album work, and for that I can't discredit it too much. But although Digital Veil is a noble attempt and certainly better than MidHeaven (you know, in the same way that Mussolini was better than Hitler), in the end it just doesn't deliver.
PROS: a few fun tracks, and it isn't MidHeaven
CONS: far too short, vocals are weak, instruments are unimpressive
