Still, music always has continued to be a mainstay in both of their lives.ĭEATHCONSCIOUSNESS TURNED 13 EARLIER THIS YEAR. Their path out of the darkness also included starting families and getting "big boy" jobs, like Macuga's full-time high school English teacher gig or Barrett's running of a real estate marketing agency. For the two of them, musical catharsis was just one part of their personal maturation.
13 years since it appeared, the record has become a beacon for a whole community of ageless (and at times empty) souls fumbling around in the dark seeking catharsis.īut 2008 was a long time ago, and both Barrett and Macuga have built full lives outside of Have a Nice Life.
It has inspired everyone from the late rapper Lil Peep, who pulled from "A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut" for his track "Shiver," to 4chan's online meme lords who mine its themes to create macabre moments. Over the years, Deathconsciousness' depressive themes have struck a chord with many outsiders.
It still reaches incredible heights, and puts the listener in a mood torn between life-affirming and death-approaching. It follows a similar aesthetic to their debut, but with a significantly shorter run-time. Their debut album was the sole occupant of a desolate island until 2014, when Have a Nice Life released their follow-up album, The Unnatural World. To cut this short and avoid further ranting, just listen to this album. Even the bands often cited as being its influencers (Swans, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine) don't really capture the same sounds that Have a Nice Life do on this album, and those are the titans of their respective genres. It's truly cut from its own cloth, and there hasn't been a record before or since that can truly compare to it. The production and recording quality is another major contributor to the feel of this album, with it being recorded for less than $1000, giving it a lo-fi sound that still feels full, warm, and organic. It's an album that stands on its own without any clear contemporaries, which is fitting considering the isolating nature of the music. By the culmination of the album in the final minutes of "Earthshaker", it's hard not to be truly moved, like standing on a mountain of solitude watching your life flash before your eyes. I consider it to be one of the most personally affecting works of art ever made, and (as cliché as it sounds) sitting alone listening to Deathconsciousness in a dark room is an experience (as pretentious as that sounds). In its near hour and a half run-time it explores a litany of expansive sounds, themes and emotions, making the final project a work of absolute genius. The band blends elements of post-punk, shoegaze, post-rock, industrial, drone, doom, and ambient music to create one of the darkest, depressing and most existential records of all time. Since their formation, they have been sparsely active, but have garnered a cult following thanks to their incredibly unique style of music and magnum opus, 2008's Deathconsciousness. The band consists of Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga. Have a Nice Life are a two-piece experimental rock band from Middletown, Connecticut that began in 2000.