CD Reviews
Human - Human | The band and album review
Human - Human
Icy Cold Records
December 2018
Human is a Cold Wave, Gothic rock band from France.
Human is a band coming from France and is the new project of Franck Ligabue.
Some of you, may already know Franck Libague since he was one of the founding members of the great cold-wave, post-gothic band Solor Dolorosa. Franck was a member of Solor Dolorosa until recently, where he held a prominent place thanks to which he was able to set truly free his creative sensibility, along with the rest of band's members. Together, as Solor Dolorosa, they got inspired and involved in the creation of an EP in 2009 "Severance", three LP between 2011 and 2017 "Blind Scene", "No More Heroes", "Apollo", a live DVD "Rive Gauche" in 2017. Soror Dolorosa opened for Alcest during their "Soul Wandering Tour" in 2012 and played in many concert halls (Bus Palladium, Klub, Viper Room, Purple Turtle, UT Connevitz, la Boule Noire...) and several European festivals (Wave Gothic Treffen, Dark Bombastik, Entremuralhas, Semana Gothica, Castle Party, Return To The Batcave Festival, Melting Sounds festival, Dark Spring Festival...
In 2018 Franck Ligabue takes the next step to his career as a musician and moves forward creating his own, new band, called Human. In Human, Franck arranges music, lyrics and vocals along with four great musicians that joined him in this effort. Human, apart from Franck, consists of Axel MOREAU (drums), Paul BLOYER (guitar and keyboards), David GARCIA (guitar) and Sylvain MARTINIE (bass). According to Franck, Human's constitution was simply made, he surrounded himself with friends seeking to bring and express the universe of human to the audience with a strong rock energy.
Human's first self-titled album had been released the 20th December 2018 (Drudenhaus Studio and Icy Cold Records). What the mastermind of Human states is that "this album carries the listener into the universe of a man who unashamedly delivers his introspective journey through the meanders of his being. A universe anchored in a sensitive, sensory, disturbing, touching landscape. Through indie rock, Cold Wave, Death Rock, Gothic rock compositions, human music talks about human nature under all its facets."
I was really curious to listen to Human from the first moment I discovered them. I was even more curious when I found out that Human is the project of Franck Ligabue, ex-Solor Dolorosa member, since Solor Dolorosa was one of this bands that had their own way to express their dark, cold wave and gothic rock.
When Human album arrived, I listened to it very carefully, trying to find similarities with Solor Dolorosa. I will be honest. There are some. But that does not make Human the next Solor Dolorosa. What someone hears from track one "Last Exit Before the Crash", is a unique sound, carefully performed by Franck and the rest of the band. Franck's voice is very characteristic and fits absolutely to Human's profile and gothic, cold wave style.
As mentioned above, "Last Exit Before the Crash" is the first track of the album and has a beautiful melody, slow guitar riffs which makes it a bit melancholic, despite the positiveness of the lyrics. "Feeding the Ocean" is quite filthier music-wise, with a tone of heavier riffs but still wave enough and touching gothic rock barriers.
"Quai des Étroits" is a pure cold wave track, atmospheric melody with emotional character and lyrics. By now, the listener could clearly separate Human from Solor Dolorosa, while a unique characteristic element of Human is the sound of the synths which reminds of older synths, even closing to psychedelic rock synth riffs.
"The wheel" is mostly a post-punk, gothic rock track with the appropriate rhythm and guitar riffs. "Hypnophobia" is again into gothic mood with beautiful guitar sounds and solo. There is also a sense of mysticism in "Hypnophobia".
"Cage the monster" is a track a little bit more in the rock side with deep atmospheric combination of music and lyrics. "This part of Me" seems to be taken out of Solor Dolorosa part of Franck Ligabue. Emotional, beautifully composed and performed. Not as heavy as other tracks in Human, with clean guitar and melody.
"The Window of Pain" along with the first tracks of the album, I believe is the identity of Human. Post-gothic, wave and catchy riffs. Closing track is the "Breaking Up the Shackles", a track which someone can say it is divided in to parts. It is a long track starting with heavy guitar, gothiic riffs and lyrics, while in the second half there is a change of the tense and an instrumental part begins with really interesting rhythm, dark mood and sound. Beautiful ending which leaves a deep emotion to the listener.
"Human" is the first album of Human and it is really worth to listen to. It is a cold wave, gothic rock collection coming from Franck Ligabue view of this music. And it is really interesting view. The album keeps an emotional dark and cold atmosphere throughout the end and the voice of Franck is a strong element for this result. In general Human has a unique sound and vocals while in compositions we can listen to several influences apart from gothic, dark and cold wave scene. Looking forward to their next moves and releases.
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