RAT WARS
Veteran LA noise-rock trio HEALTH’s 2023 LP *RAT WARS* builds on their noise-centric industrial exercises, accentuating their hardcore tendencies with dance grooves, haunted synths, and wall-of-sound guitar lines. Taking influences from Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and contemporaries like A Place to Bury Strangers, HEALTH builds deeply twisted odes to sweaty nights on the club floor and long mornings trying to fend off the sun. Like its predecessor, 2019’s *VOL. 4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR*, *RAT WARS* blends pain and catharsis, emptiness and ecstasy. On “UNLOVED,” the trio of Benjamin Miller, Jake Duzsik, and John Famiglietti cook up a track built around military-grade snare drums, gnarling synths, and hi-hats that slosh like boots in deep rain puddles. Duzsik takes the vocal lead, conjuring up a deeply dark tale as he croons in an almost-snarl, “And it was not my fault you were unloved when you were a child/I wasn\'t there.”
In many ways RAT WARS feels like an album built for HEALTH to critique the vapidity of modern life. For example, "HATEFUL" conjures up images of sci-fi night-clubs during floor-clearing brawls, whilst Jake Duzsik’s meditations on love and loneliness hint…
LA industrial geniuses HEALTH exude menacing melancholy and evident greatness on glowering fifth album…
Will Marshall reviews the new album from noise rock trio Health! Read the review of 'Rat Wars' here on Distorted Sound!
Rat Wars by HEALTH album review: The noise band trade their sonic variety of old with a lingering anxiety
Rat Wars by HEALTH album review by David Saxum for Northern Transmissions. The trio's full-length drops on December 8th via Loma Vista