Have a Nice Life: The Unnatural World (The Flenser, 2/4/14)
There’s a certain space somewhere in this world — a psychic space between the fog of a long-dead forest and the first line of the new American sci-fi/horror novel. That’s where New England’s Have a Nice Life lives and works. It’s the sound of the band’s new album, The Unnatural World, as it hums with the overblown quiver of industrial percussion, the gasps of desperate reverb, and distant, elongated, harmonized vocals.
Album highlight “Defenestration Song” exemplifies the genre-mashing that makes the band such a cathartic listen, draping shoegaze-like distortion over post-punk drumming and gothic hey-day atmosphere. The supremely unrelenting bass line elevates the track to a new level, channeling the ghost rattle of a neglected and road-weary Deuce Coupe, plunging into curves along the woodland highway.