ARE THE HUMAN ABSTRACT LOOKING FOR A NEW GUITAR PLAYER?

Please allow me to take a moment to express complete confusion over the current state of The Human Abstract. See, back in June, the band announced that they were going to play the Brutal Assault Festival in the Czech Republic, and it even seemed that former vocalist Travis Richter was re-joining the band for the occasion.

But I guess at some point, THA quietly pulled out of the fest — because while the event took place almost three weeks ago, I can’t find any videos of  THA playing it online (contrast that with how easy it is to find videos of Pig Destroyer playing the same festival), they’re no longer listed on the official website’s roster of bands who played, and they’re not on the fest’s schedule, either.

And meanwhile, Richter has now posted the below messages on his Facebook page:

It’s hard to know if this means anything since we don’t even really know if Richter is in the goddamn band or not. Seriously, here are just a few possibilites as to what this could mean:

1. Travis Richter is back in The Human Abstract but either guitarist A.J. Minette or guitarist Dean Herrera are out, and the band now needs a new second guitar player.
2. Travis Richter is back in The Human Abstract but either guitarist A.J. Minette or guitarist Dean Herrera cannot participate in an upcoming tour, and the band now needs temporary stand-in.
3. Travis Richter is back in The Human Abstract and the band wants to recruit a new third guitar player, but do not want to bring former third guitar player Andrew Tapley back into the fold.
4. Travis Richter is back in The Human Abstract and the band wants to recruit a new third guitar player, but former third guitar player Andrew Taplehas declined to come back to the fold.
5. Taking a cue from Tracii Guns and Geoff Tate, Travis Richter is starting his own, “new” version of The Human Abstract to tour and perform songs from the one album on which he appears (last year’s still-ridiculously-good Digital Veil) and needs a guitar player or players to be in this band.
6. Travis Richter is just looking for good guitar players for an unspecified project and poorly chose phrasing which will incite internet gossip.
7. Travis Richter is fucking with all of us.

I wish I had more info for you, but I don’t. Hopefully answers will reveal themselves soon. In the meantime, feel free to speculate in the comments section below.

-AR

Thanks to Carlos B. for the tip.