The Rock Blogger

The Gault . Even As All Before Us . 2005. 4 stars .

The Gault was a short-lived doom metal band formed out of the ashes of San Francisco’s acclaimed Weakling, and Even As All Before Us was their sole, devastating release. This hard to find album is one of the most emotionally exhausting recordings I have come across, as it incorporates the gloomy atmosphere of early industrial rock and melds it with jangly post-punk instrumentation, producing a depressive, droning sound that insulates your senses.

While the throbbing bass lines, martial drumming and Gothic vocals place The Gault among doom metal peers Warning and the more experimental work of Earth and Sunn O))), their cacophonous guitar work also follows a shoegazing torrent akin to The Angelic Process . Naming off influences and contemporaries is a suitable way of describing The Gault’s sound, but conveying the crushing effect this music has on you is a much harder task. It’s swirling rhythms and shimmering guitars are dizzying in their intensity and will drown out any distractions from the outside world. Even As All Before Us moves like a relentless undertow, constantly drawing you into a violently spinning current. This is not to say that The Gault’s music isn’t beautiful or redemptive, as tracks like "Country Road, Six Miles In" and "The Shore Becomes the Enemy" also feature the serene, airy vocals of Lorraine Rath to balance out the deep and booming voice of Ed Kunakemakorn, who dominates most of the album.

For its almost militant energy, disturbing vocals, and natural imagery, Even As All Before Us is a unique contribution to the doom metal genre, capturing the feeling of an arduous journey to somewhere far removed from the comforting spaces of the everyday. This is music that sticks with you long after the tracks are over, pushing you into a difficult, if not tormented, state of mind. Despite their challenging demeanor, The Gault are undeniably masters of genuine emotional delivery, playing out a haunting musical drama that sears its way into your memory.

As regular readers of this blog already know, I have been infatuated with an album called Deathconsciousness from Connecticut’s mysterious Have a Nice Life. Despite having no mainstream press coverage, no Wikipedia page or any mention on Pitchfork, this duo has generated a sizable cult following their debut double disc album which is receiving accolades all across the Internet.

For those of us wanting to know a little more about this band and their strange blend of post punk and shoegaze styles, Scene Point Blank recently interviewed the guys to learn a little more about their ambitions, their writing process and their future.

The most striking parts of the interview for me was the duo’s personal and insular approach to crafting their sound, as they wrote the record for themselves, with little attention payed to how others would receive their work.

Scene Point Blank: Was it a conscious decision to release the album yourself? If so, why?

Dan: We always knew we would release the record ourselves. Outside of those closest to us, hardly anyone was even aware that we were writing music. It’s just something we do, and have done consistently since we met. There is never a point when we aren’t writing or recording music…releasing the record was, and always has been, secondary to the act of writing it in the first place. To be honest, I’m surprised anyone likes it but us.

…

Scene Point Blank: What do you hope people take away from the whole Deathconsciousness release?

Dan: We would’ve written the exact same record if we were the last two people on Earth. It was recorded assuming that no one would ever hear it. If anyone does and they enjoy it, that’s great. I hope that happens. But that’s about as far as it goes.

I found this approach and attitude rather inspiring, as it lends to a creative process that is honest and uncompromising. Leaving the pressures of industry expectations and recognition aside allowed Have a Nice Life to truly explore their own thoughts and feelings without inhibition, leading to work of great conceptual sophistication. Its refreshing to see more bands taking up the DIY ethos, taking up self release strategies to maintain their artistic independence. Hopefully I can take some of these ideals with me when I go back to recording my own demos.

Anyways, in case you haven’t heard anything from these guys yet, I found one of their songs on YouTube.

Enjoy:

Have a Nice Life. The Future.

I had a pretty shitty day, so I’m not really up to writing anything noteworthy or original. A nice, depressing song from Joy Division always seems to cheer me up. Enjoy my friends.

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.

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I’ve been so busy these last couple of days, with family gatherings and such, that I haven’t had much time to blog. Hopefully, I’ll get into reviewing some of the new albums I picked up for Christmas, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here is some classic Joy Division for you. This is the video for the single “Atmosphere”, released after Ian Curtis’ death in 1980.

A classic video of Joy Division performing “Transmission” on British Television. Also look for John Cooper Clarke at the beginning of the clip reading “Evidently Chickentown”). I saw the movie Control recently (the incredible Ian Curtis bio-pic) I’ll review it sometime soon, but in the meantime see it yourself. Enjoy.

Wow. This outstanding video was made only with a webcam in the band’s RV while awaiting a gig. Creepy, vaguely threatening and Matrix-esque, this a masterpiece of mood and skillful editing. The music is terrific as well, with a dark bass driven melody reminiscent of Joy Division.