The Human Abstract

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The Human Abstract
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genre(s)	Metalcore Progressive metal Neo-classical metal
Years active	2003–present
Label(s)	Hopeless
Members
Nathan Ells Andrew Tapley Dean Herrera Mike Nordeen Brett Powell Sean Leonard
Former members
A.J Minette Nick Olaerts Kenny Aerheart Henry Selva

The Human Abstract is a metal band with neo-classical elements. They are from Los Angeles, California. The band's name references a poem of the same title by William Blake (Songs of Experience, 1794).

1 History
2 Side projects
3 Discography
4 External links

[edit] History

Guitarist Dean Herrera and guitarist/keyboardist A.J. Minette formed The Human Abstract in 2004, adding drummer Brett Powell, bassist Kenny Arehart, and singer Nick Olaerts. The band recorded a couple of demos and played a number of regional gigs before signing with Hopeless Records in 2005. Soon after signing to Hopeless Records, THA replaced singer Nick Olaerts with Nathan Ells.

Nathan Ells joined the band before heading into the studio to record the band's debut full length release "Nocturne”. They released their debut album Nocturne on Hopeless Records on August 22, 2006. Their new album Midheaven is set to be released on August 19, 2008.

The band has been critically acclaimed for their technical proficiency and stage presence. In the past they have toured with bands such as All That Remains, God Forbid, Misery Signals, The Devil Wears Prada, Every Time I Die, The Bled, August Burns Red, Shai Hulud, Folly, Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Protest the Hero, It Dies Today, Mushroomhead, Mnemic, Goatwhore, Look What I Did, Arsis, and The Chariot. They were on the 2007 warped tour's smartpunk stage.

The Human Abstract performed on 2008's Take Action Tour featuring Everytime I Die, From First To Last, The Bled, and August Burns Red. The band played a few of their new songs to the Take Action Tour crowd culminating in an instant acceptance, the performance is still there, and so is the vivid, fast, technical, melodic music, breakdowns, and now more fluent keyboards and excellent clean vocals and vocal patterns.

During the writing and recording process of their upcoming 2008 album, fans noticed that lead guitarist A.J. Minette was not shown in any of their studio pictures on the band's myspace page, instead there being replacement guitarist Andrew Tapley. This led to the worry and assumption that A.J. had left the band, but there was no official word until he was quoted as saying "I don't feel like I can get onstage and feel honest about playing metal anymore." The rest of the band felt that totally changing the sound would have been "like a smack in the face to all those that had been coming out and supporting the shows." Nathan Ells wrote, "The Human Abstract has always been, and will continue to be, a heavy band."