Have A Nice Life – Deathconsciousness

22 May 2008, Jessica @ 9:31 pm Have A Nice Life Deathconsciousness

Thanks to The Rock Blogger, I was introduced to Have A Nice Life, a shoegaze/industrial/metal duo from Connecticut. They self-released their debut album, Deathconsciousness this past January. It features a two-side disc set with a 70-page essay-type book that revolves around the history of religious symbolism and ideology, focusing on Antiocheanism, a religious cult that centred around the teachings of a sketchy character named Antiocus (can’t find any other info on this, so whether or not the entire book is based on some fictitious character, I don’t know, but regardless the general idea is compelling, to say the least). For awhile, you could have ordered the real thing, but it sold out and now the album is only available for digital download, and the booklet available in a .pdf format.

Deathconsciousness is a very interesting album, and like all concept albums, it requires full attention to really enjoy it. I’ll talk about it in a little more detail later, but for now I just want to focus on the music. Musically, Have A Nice Life blends shoegaze, industrial, and metal…very reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine (as has been mentioned in almost all reviews) and its shoegaze goodness, featuring lots of lo fi drone, reverb and distortion in their music. They also denote some post-rock qualities (kind of reminds me of Red Sparowes and Godspeed—probably the metal features), as in “A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut.” A lot of reviewers call it inconsistent, but I think I can understand why, as this album was in the works for about five years before its release. The second disc is a bit more consistent than the first, goes with the concept itself, too; the first disc seems a little lighter and sillier, not to mention some of the titles are pretty quirky.

The concept behind Deathconsciousness is just exactly what the title is—to be conscious of the tedious truth of inevitable death; really, it’s a stab at existentialism, and to quote the booklet, “And It begs the question – “What is the point?”” I don’t want to mistakenly say something about the concept of what the band was trying to present, and really, they don’t try to really argue its point…but I find the idea of it interesting: to question religious and spiritual convictions, ideas of life and death, morals and values, etc.

An awesome concept album, I highly recommend it. It really does require a lot of your attention (hence my late post), but is absolutely worth it.

AWmusic