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Deathconsciousness

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Deathconsciousness
Studio album by
Have a Nice Life
ReleasedJanuary 24, 2008 (2008-01-24)
Recorded2002–2007
Genre
Length85:04
LabelEnemies List Home Recordings
Have a Nice Life chronology
Deathconsciousness
(2008) 		Time of Land
(2010)
2009 reissue album cover

Deathconsciousness is the debut studio album by American rock duo Have a Nice Life, released on January 24, 2008 on Enemies List Home Recordings.[4] Recorded independently by the band members on a budget of less than $1,000, Deathconsciousness was released as a double album; the first disc is entitled "The Plow That Broke the Plains" and the second is entitled "The Future".[5] The original cover art features a darkened version of the painting The Death of Marat, painted by Jacques-Louis David during the French Revolution.[6]

The album received little attention from professional music publications upon its release, but spread through internet message boards and memes. In 2019, Kerrang! noted that it "quickly became a viral hit amongst internet communities like /mu/, Sputnikmusic and Rate Your Music. Aided by their relative anonymity and Deathconsciousness' ominous liner notes, which described a fictional medieval cult that worshipped God's murderer, Deathconsciousness quickly became the stuff of internet myth."[7]

Composition and music

[edit]

Band member Dan Barrett was quoted as saying, "The lyrics were written simultaneously with the songs, though I tend to work in scraps... I'm constantly writing, then culling pieces that I think fit the music to build entire songs around. At the time I had a job where I would have to be into work at 4:30 in the morning, alone in a giant building, at a desk in front of a giant window. I wrote reams and reams during that time."[8] Regarding how the project came to fruition, Barrett remarked that "We didn’t have a grand plan for it. A couple things ended up happening. We were recording songs and we had a bunch of stuff we didn’t know what to do with. We had a lot of material always because we would just get together and always write new stuff, and never work on the old stuff. I think it started coming together as a project, like my dad passed away and I think that sort of threw things sharply into focus."[2]

In an online Q&A session, Barrett commented on the notoriously lo-fi sound achieved on the album, mentioning how "a lot of Deathconsciousness was recorded through the pinhole mic on [his] laptop".[9] The whole album was recorded with a budget of less than $1,000 USD.[2] The Flenser label owner Jonathan Tuite said: "This is a record that was created with tools that are available to anyone. Pretty easily, very cheaply, a lot of the sounds are probably presets, and it didn’t need a lot of tweaking. It’s kind of like a record made by an everyman, even though it’s a work of near-genius."[2]

The album's style has been described as dark ambient and gothic rock; its tone "apocalyptic".[1] Deathconsciousness is a concept album;[10] Jason Heller of Pitchfork identified the thesis of the album as the view that "Existence is bleak, gallows humor undergirds it, and sometimes wallowing in that sick paradox is the best revenge".[11]

Barrett picked "The Big Gloom", his personal favorite, as the most emotional song on the album to put together, while Tim Macuga chose "Earthmover", specifically the loud ending. The iconic "bass drop" at the end of the song came from Macuga slamming his bass guitar onto the floor out of frustration and leaving the room as a result of recording difficulties.[2]

The original master recordings of the album were lost during a hard drive crash, leaving the band with only 192 kbps MP3 files.[12]

Release

[edit]

A 70-page booklet written by Dan Barrett accompanied the album, although the booklet refers to a nameless religious history professor from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst as its author. It details the life, death, and teachings of Antiochus, the leader of a fictional religious sect created by Barrett.[13] The album was reissued in 2009 by Enemies List, re-pressing the album on vinyl and CD, with new cover art. The reissue included a 70-page booklet with various paintings and lyrics.[14][15] Another reissue of Deathconsciousness was released September 17, 2014 by Enemies List and The Flenser.[16]

Reception and legacy

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Sputnikmusic[3]

The album received little to no attention from music publications upon its release, although Nick Greer of Sputnikmusic gave it four-and-a-half stars out of five and the album placed at No. 94 on the website's Top 100 Albums of the Decade list.[17] Piero Scaruffi described the album as a "hybrid of My Bloody Valentine's shoegaze-pop, Joy Division's dark-punk, Godspeed You Black Emperor's post-rock, Nine Inch Nails' industrial dirges, and the Swans' proto-doom".[18]

Though the band members expected it to linger in obscurity,[19] the album has, in the years following its release, gained a substantial cult following, especially in online music communities such as 4chan's /mu/, the website's imageboard for musical discussion, where it is considered an "essential" album.[2][19] The album is also acclaimed on the Reddit community r/Indieheads.[19] Mike LeSuer of Flood described the album as a "meme-worthy cultural moment".[20] As of 2019, the album had been re-issued seven times.[19] Also in 2019, the band performed the album in its entirety at the Dutch metal festival Roadburn.[19]

Barrett said, "We saw an Italian magazine put it on the best albums of the year list next to Portishead and Meshuggah and thought, 'Oh god, they think we’re a real band!'"[7]

The opening track "A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut" was sampled by producer John Mello for a song by rapper Lil Peep on a track titled "Shiver". Macuga remarked, "I recorded that guitar part in my bathtub and now it’s on the front page of Us Weekly for a rapper’s eulogy."[7] For the week ending in April 18, 2024, "A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut" debuted at No. 30 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart.[21]

Later releases from artists in the shoegaze and gothic rock genres can be compared to Deathconsciousness, particularly in their use of atmospheric, moody soundscapes. For instance, bands like Deafheaven and Planning for Burial, though heavier in tone, evoke similar emotional depth and genre-blending approaches. Both these bands echo Deathconsciousness's mixture of post-punk, industrial, and black metal elements with a unique emotional depth that extends into themes of nihilism, loneliness, and existential despair.

Accolades

[edit]
Publication Accolade Rank
Sputnikmusic Top 100 Albums of the Decade[17] 94

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga

The Plow That Broke the Plains
No.TitleLength
1."A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut"7:52
2."Bloodhail"5:40
3."The Big Gloom"8:07
4."Hunter"9:45
5."Telephony"4:38
6."Who Would Leave Their Son Out in the Sun?"5:19
7."There Is No Food"4:00
Total length:45:21
The Future
No.TitleLength
8."Waiting for Black Metal Records to Come in the Mail"6:17
9."Holy Fucking Shit: 40,000"6:29
10."The Future"3:50
11."Deep, Deep"5:25
12."I Don't Love"6:13
13."Earthmover"11:28
Total length:39:42

References

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  1. ^ a b c Goodridge, Hayden (2019-08-27). "Have a Nice Life Announce New Album Sea of Worry, Share Lead Single". Paste. Archived from the original on 2021-01-13. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Have a Nice Life's 'Deathconsciousness' Is the Next Greatest Album of All Time". Vice. 2014-11-24.
  3. ^ a b c "Have A Nice Life - Deathconsciousness (album review)". Sputnikmusic. 2008-01-30.
  4. ^ "ENEMIES LIST HOME RECORDINGS » shoegaze/doom/drone/whatever. Since 2005". Enemies List Home Recordings. Archived from the original on 2008-04-07. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  5. ^ Gotrich, Lars (December 11, 2013). "This Song Is For Throwing Stuff Out The Window". NPR. Archived from the original on 2015-05-28. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  6. ^ "Louvre site des collections". collections.louvre.fr. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  7. ^ a b c "Have A Nice Life Aren't Joking". Kerrang!. 22 March 2019. Retrieved 2022-10-31.
  8. ^ "Interviews: Have A Nice Life". Scenepointblank. 2010-08-16.
  9. ^ Barrett, Dan. "Dan Barrett /mu/ Q&A". Youtube.
  10. ^ Manno, Lizze (2020-01-14). "10 Experimental Bands Who Are Redefining Guitar Music". Paste. Archived from the original on 2020-10-20. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  11. ^ Heller, Jason (February 6, 2014). "Have a Nice Life: The Unnatural World". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 2014-02-07. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  12. ^ "'Deathconsciousness' to Doge Memes: Have a Nice Life Revisit Cult-Classic Album". Revolver. 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2022-10-31.
  13. ^ Gordon, Arielle (November 12, 2019). "Have a Nice Life: Sea of Worry". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  14. ^ "Have A Nice Life - "Deathconsciousness" (Repress)". Enemies List Home Recordings. Archived from the original on 2013-02-21.
  15. ^ "deathconsciousness-booklet.pdf — Are.na". www.are.na. 21 January 2018. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
  16. ^ "Have a Nice Life "Deathconsciousness" DLP reissue Pre-sale INFO". The Flenser. 2014-07-02. Archived from the original on 2014-10-01. Retrieved 2014-09-23.
  17. ^ a b "Sputnikmusic - Top 100 Albums of the Decade (100 -76) « Staff Blog". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 2022-08-25.
  18. ^ "The History of Rock Music. Have A Nice Life: biography, discography, review, ratings, best albums". www.scaruffi.com. Retrieved 2024-07-14.
  19. ^ a b c d e Lyons, Patrick (2019-11-11). "Have a Nice Life On Their Anxiety-Driven Third Album, "Sea of Worry"". Bandcamp Daily. Archived from the original on 2020-01-12. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  20. ^ LeSuer, Mike (January 4, 2021). "Signal Boost: 15 Tracks from December 2020 You Should Know". Filter (magazine). Archived from the original on 2021-01-04. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  21. ^ Cabison, Rosalie (2023-08-30). "TikTok Billboard Top 50". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
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