HEALTH at Gorilla in Manchester Review

Image: HEALTH 

It'd be unsurprising to find out that LA band HEALTH were formed after a demonic tip off about the world ending, and were planning for what can only be described as an apocalyptic disco. 

Even for those familiar with grandiose new album Death Magic, an opening drum sequence that could topple a Ottoman fortification followed by the harrowing 'Zoothorns' shouldn't astound you. But boy does it when you're enveloped under the railway arches of Gorilla in its cavernous confines. 

It's understandable that the group draw such a mixed crowd, their doom struck yet strikingly invigorating output doesn't quite lending itself to an outright musical strand as such.

Nothing quite compares; Nine Inch Nails are frequently bandied about, and the distortion of Fuck Buttons comes to mind, but all in all they forge their own path with their melodic ear pelting of screeching electronics, talon sharp rhythms and submissive drum thuds. 

Almost each juncture begins with Benjamin Jared Miller's silhouette menacingly beating a tribal drum, or a propulsive electronic force exampled on standout songs like 'STONEFIST' (listen below). Its industrial pelt is cruelly reinforced by the brute force of a kick drum to turn your stomach inside out. 

What started out sounding like hell measurably consuming earth in a Spielberg directed day of reckoning actually transpired into a well weighted show.

The bands unnerving set list also inspired danceable moments; the mechanical pulses heard from older Get Color material like 'Death+' and 'Die Slow' caused the crowd to bop with every wave of kinetic energy hurtled from HEALTH's hardened instruments and gritty electronic equipment.    

Similarly, 'L.A. LOOKS' brought a majestic groove to the room at a particularly hedonistic point, while the opening bombardment of 'FLESH WORLD' wouldn't go a miss cannoning through a Berlin techno fort - if it wasn't for a blossoming pop carved chorus crooned from Duzsik's immersive figure. 

Flicking back to their opening chapter HEALTH, it's apparent that the band have blossomed into a very different beast. 'LIFE' and 'DARK ENOUGH' (listen above) not only represent wider accessibility to the new album, but a new found leniency towards empowering melodies that wash seamlessly against Duzsik's captivating operatic. 

The band have slowly but surely made the sonic incisions into a source that they're quite clearly enjoying extracting. Famiglietti clearly enjoyed himself on the night, moshing and swirling his long hair while simultaneously grinding out thunderous riffs and operating electronics.

But the HEALTH of old is not lost, returning for an encore, the band engaged in a sole thirty second noise chasm prompted by 'Girl Attorney'.

It capped off a particularly cinematic and truly eye opening experience, highlighting the capabilities of what can be achieved with against the grain of genre conformity and through extensive band evolution.

Read: Nothing But Thieves interview: Milky Golden Number One hits.

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