Album: DISCO4 :: PART II Artist: HEALTH Genre: #Alternative Sub-Genres: #GraveWave #Goth #Industrial #Metal #Electronic Label: Loma Vista Recordings Non-Airable Tracks: MURDER DEATH KILL, THE JOY OF SECT Description:
I read one review of this album before it released on Thursday night that was absolutely scathing, discussing how this second part to Health's collab compilation had absolutely no cohesion, each song feeling like its part of a seperate album, but they admitted that Health has really given itself a foothold as a curator of music, which I think is how you should look at this album, not as a traditional album, but a curated playlist of lots of different wonderful bands, glued together by Health's industrial pop sound, sometimes taking a back seat to let the collaborators take the wheel, sometimes letting their collaborators just add little accents to more traditional Health tracks, but either way, it is excellent. I think it is not only a great follow up to the excellent first part, but I think it exceeds the very high bar its predecessor layed out.
Collaborators include Poppy, Nine Inch Nails, Ada Rook, PlayThatBoiZay, Maened Veyl, Lamb of God, The Body, Backwash, H09909X, Street Sects, Ekkstacy, The Neighbourhood, and Perturbator (well, technically the Perturbator collaboration is a cover of a Perturbator song, but I will give it to them). While I wish I could talk in depth about each and every track, I am only going to be focusing on what I think are some of the highlights.
"ISN'T EVERYONE" is a big highlight for me personally, as a big fan of Nine Inch Nails, and I appreciated the continued lyrical pattern of Trent Reznor calling people piggy and then making me feel very sad from existential dread. I adore the deep bassdrum, coupled with the very Health-y accent synths, distorted, filtered and ambient guitar riffs in classic Nine Inch Nails Style, and the lovely high pitched vocals of Jacob Duzsik fighting with Trent's teenage yelling. This track sounds like it is right off of the EP trilogy Nine Inch Nails released from 2016-2018, and it sticks in my head in the same haunting way.
I am ordinairily not very fond of rap as a genre, with some exceptions, but "MURDER DEATH KILL" has definitely made that list of exceptions. Mixing aggressive rap with nasaly death metal screaming and rough beats, all wrapped together with nice instrumentals and some more of Jacob Duzsik's soft voice make this song such a pleasure to listen to, and truly interesting.
"THE JOY OF SECT" is an interesting case because, as a fan of Street Sects, I was excited for something from the messy punk stylings Street Sects is so well known for, but instead, I was surprised with a lovely Health dominant instrumental, with a pulsing bass synth, and backup vocals of Street Sects' Leo Ashline, utilizing his signature of alternating between high pitched screams and low, bouncy notes, and while this was not at all what I was hoping for, I really love it.
The capstone of the album is "THESE DAYS 2.0.2.1.", which is the only solo Health track on the album, and is the sister track to "CYBERPUNK 2.0.2.0.", the first track of part one. The track itself is nothing too crazy, but its an enjoyable little track to finish off with.
So in short, while the stylng of the album is a bit all over the place, thats part of the fun in an album like this. Health will be here in Tucson at 191 Toole in August, and I myself bought tickets as soon as I could, so I am personally very excited.
Sounds Like:
Nine Inch Nails
Perturbator
Salem
Recommended Tracks:
ISN'T EVERYONE
EXCESS
THE JOY OF SECT
Reviewer’s Name: Roisin Robinson Date of Review: 4/8/2022