HEALTH - STONEFIST

HEALTH set themselves a fair few aims in the last six years. One was to finish a Max Payne soundtrack (a three month job which took over a year to finish). Another was to make another fucking record (they put it off before doing the Max Payne work and then putting it off again). But more than anything, they wanted to refine and go further with the melodic edge they lent to noise with ‘Die Slow’, a standout from their second LP ‘Get Color’.

This fully-charged, uncompromising outfit showed a new side with that record. For every piercing death charge, there was light at the end of the tunnel. And so even though it’s taken them over half a decade to release ‘Death Magic’, the goal remains absolute. ‘STONEFIST’ is the firmest sign yet that they’ve achieved it. Strip the song of Jake Duzsik’s glossed-over vocals - top of the mix more than ever - and you’re left with a chugging industrial club track that might sneak around in Berlin Berghain’s grimiest, most free-thinking corners. But it’s Duzsik that flips the rulebook and spins a pop web. “Love’s not in our hearts,” he sings, every note being rinsed with sweltering electronics. Like watching the apocalypse, thinking it could look a bit more spectacular and getting down about it, ‘STONEFIST’ is harshness with a sad, sweet edge. It’s everything HEALTH set out to achieve.