While the album is amazingly ambitious (the individually named discs, The Plow That Broke the Plains and The Future explore countless musical and lyrical ideas over the course of its hour and a half run time), there is something grounded about the album considering the use of both analog and digital recording and the pop-dependent genres (e.g. While the songs are challenging and inscrutable, they also have downright catchy moments. While the songs are expansive and plodding, some of them taking 10 minutes to unfold in the spirit of post-rock can also be claustrophobic with digital, industrialized percussion and distorted, fuzzed out guitar. The two primary band members, Dan (ex-In Pieces) and Tim, wear their influences well, combining shoegaze, industrial, black metal, post-rock, dark ambient, and alternative to make a paradoxical, intriguing sound. All at once the album can sound deadly, harrowing, ambient, subdued, rough and refined. In the case of Deathconsciousness, the emotions and happenings of the life of Antiochus are perfectly captured in the mood of the actual music. In short, the concept is lofty, convoluted, and intense, not unlike the drug-induced dreams of The Mars Volta or Pink Floyd.īut a concept album can have a good concept but not be a good album. As a historical figure, Antiochus is absurdly obscure, and the collected materials in the booklet may be the most complete documentation of his existence as I cannot find anything on the internet or using my school's library browsing system. So when I got my copy of Deathconsciousness in the mail, and was presented with a double-disc album in a slim DVD case, and an accompanying 70+ page booklet documenting the life, literature, and followers of a 13th century Italian writer and religious figure named Antiochus, I was immediately wrapped into a realm of heresy, religious persecution, and murder (which are more aptly labeled as suicides). That album alone spawned countless fan theories, interpretations, and online communities just to investigate the odd world of Cerpin Taxt. Their first album, Deloused in the Comatorium, had an accompanying booklet that gave insight into the storyline, which allegedly documents the psychological journey of a friend who ODs and while trapped in his own psyche, decides to let himself die on the last track. The Mars Volta have led their fans through crazy narratives. Dark Side of the Moon has such a deep legacy that people figured out that it can be synced up with the beginning of "The Wizard of Oz," the opening ambience of "Breathe" accompanying the Miramax lion growling. Pink Floyd has enjoyed massive success with the anarchical The Wall and the spaced out Dark Side of the Moon. There's no better way to sell a concept album then to have lore surrounding the album's narrative. The Flenser's reissue is accompanied by a 75-page booklet detailing the dark and forgotten history of the Antiochean cult - an engrossing narrative that blurs the lines between liner notes, novella and academic text." " A masterpiece of depression" -The Quietus.Review Summary: The most beautiful album of 2008 has already arrived. The band commented, 'Working with Flenser lets us keep things comfortable on our end, while also pressing enough copies to actually meet the need and not creating an artificially inflated collector's market, as happened with some of our past releases.' Rhythmic, primal and expansive, Deathconsciousness offers a meditation on death, loss and unrequited love, with repeated listens revealing new layers of depth and meaning. Now, longtime Have a Nice Life collaborator The Flenser reissues Deathconsciousness on colored vinyl with deluxe packaging. In the meantime, Deathconsciousness has become a cult classic whose seamless blend of shoegaze, post-punk, new wave, industrial and noise influences inspire fanatic obsession. "Have a Nice Life released their debut double-album Deathconsciousness in 2008 to a whimper and critical non-interest six years later, the band followed it up with 2014's stunner The Unnatural World.
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