Health, Manchester Deaf Institute

If they sound like the world grinding to a bitter end on record, then live they’re twice as terrifying. Veterans of Los Angeles’ seminal The Smell venue, HEALTH are famed for their frighteningly nihilistic brand of noise rock. Through their screams and distortions, their latest release, ‘Get Color’, is certain to be at the head of many albums of the year charts, and with good reason; whilst their debut was groundbreaking, they’re now a band on the cusp of genius, showing glimpses of the sheer talent they possess. In the flesh, however, it’s the bass section that leads the way, frightening and confusing as it is.

Though in normal circumstances a static crowd is cause for concern, this time it is for all the right reasons. The venue has seen a few noise rock bands pass through its doors, but Manchester’s Deaf Institute has certainly experienced nothing like the intensity of HEALTH. No introduction is given or needed, as the band tear straight into the much more primitive material of their first album. Live, they have the penchant to sound more like a death metal band than the thinking man’s Crystal Castles, but it’s probably difficult to get across the nuances of your synth loops when you’ve got someone as monstrous as HEALTH’s BJ on drums.

An explosive set – and at 25 minutes, an incredibly short one – the performance is a feat as much as anything else. Their sound is one of shouting, screaming, androgynous vocals and, crucially, of heavy distortion to their instruments. In between each song the band are forced to undergo a huge procedure of changing pedals and instruments, which is an entertaining watch in itself. Clearly, sounding like the apocalypse is quite tiresome work, but one that pays off. They somehow manage to turn their guitars into the screeching of machines coming to a halt or a nuclear gactory counting down to oblivion. It’s reminiscent of a nightmare but it’s impossible to do anything other than admire them as they tear through the music of our end days.

Despite the limited stage time, the band are truly breathtaking, a perfect mix of aggression and serenity. Half of the band’s skill is in the pacing of their songs, the mixture of angry bass riffs and synth loops, knowing exactly when to bring in the almost angelic lead vocals. The result is a symphony of emotions, a clash between not knowing whether to dance or to cry, but being in awe either way. The undoubted peak of the set comes with the band’s decadent masterpiece ‘Die Slow’ which even gets the crowd’s leaden feet to move a little bit. With any other band, there would be a right to feel short-changed. With HEALTH, there’s simply nobody else out there who are even in the same league.