The Rock Blogger

Have a Nice Life. Deathconsciousness. 2008. 5 stars.

Sometimes, the conditions are just right for the appreciation of new music. I first started exploring Have a Nice Life’s double album debut as I was leaving my house at 5:45 am last Saturday, still in a somnambulist daze, feeling the cold winter night across my face while overlooking the city lights of Toronto from the lonely hilltop leading my street to the empty road heading south. It was in those moments of dreary isolation, where it felt like the only living souls were miles away in the distance, that the early moments of Deathconsciousness began to seep in. This is record, though far from perfect, delivers an emotional wallop that seems unparalleled. A mysterious synthesis of post-punk, shoegaze, metal and post-rock, Have a Nice Life’s ghostly ruminations aren’t just careful homages to their favorite genres and influences, they instead push the boundaries of them to get to their dramatic core, presenting a perfect summation of where the underground has been and where it will be going.

The album, sprawling across two discs, conveys the black spirit of Joy Division, The Cure and Killing Joke with stark, lo-fi production, pulsing bass lines and gritty drum beats while also pushing the post punk aesthetic into deeper abstraction, leading to long and ethereal bursts of droning noise and menacing reverb. The vocals are serene, distant and beautifully harmonized, adding a layer of sentimentality to the crushing sadness these compositions. The song structures verge from slow burning post rock drones in the same vein as Jesu to more energized and claustrophobic punk numbers that blister in their intensity. The albums most stunning highlights, “Bloodhail” and “The Future” reveal the band’s heavier roots, reveling in the climbing anxiety of wiry guitar riffs and swirling, distorted synths, and prupuslive drum blasts, entering the same epelleptic spells that haunted Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control”

While Have a Nice Life’s influences are easily noticeable, their sound is far from derivative, as they weave stylistic nuances into a cohesive and disturbing whole. While this album does have its faults, namely in the band’s inability to trim some of the fat off the longer experimental exercises, the hypnotic atmosphere, existential themes and stirring climaxes make Deathconsiousness one of the greatest artistic statements to grace the alternative scene since Radiohead’s Kid A. Take the time to explore this album in its entirety and let the dark drones wash over. If the moon is at the right height in the sky, or the clouds give way to a massive downpour, make sure you have this album on hand.

Have a Nice Life.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.