★★★★½
Health scare the shit out of me.
Their music elicits the kind of pensive anticipation of dread that I got the first time I saw Wolf Creek, and on their third album, Death Magic, they have in no way mediated the disconcerting sway of their sound. However, like the arc of a great story, with the dark comes the reprieve – the light – and for the Los Angeles-based four-piece, this manifests in the monotone falsetto of Jake Duzsik.
The album opens with ‘Victim’, a moody, atmospheric two-minute piece that sounds like the opening to a modern sci-fi film. ‘Stonefist’ starts with a face-sheering effected guitar sound, syncopated with BJ Miller’s classic post-punk fast-but-slow drumming technique.
Despite the ostensible simplicity of Health’s music, it is their ability to impart a myriad of powerful emotions that has seen the band evolve to become one of the few survivors of LA’s DIY punk scene of the late ’00s. That said, ‘New Coke’sounds like a track from a remix album. This song is best listened to very, very, very loud.
Health are doing something truly contemporary, and it’s refreshing, considering the current era of hat-tips and throwbacks.
