Noise rock band HEALTH have unleashed their latest track “Strange Days (1999)” today which has become the latest single in anticipation for their upcoming album VOL. 4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR which is currently set for February release date. This is the second single to be released for the project following the release of “Slaves of Fear,” last December.
“Strange Days (1999)” takes a heavy industrial tone with booming basslines, screeching synths, and bombastic trap drums layered over the vocal harmonies. The vocal deliveries and lyrics give the track an eerie vibe that go along well with the industrial style of this track.
This upcoming album is produced by Lars Stalfors who has produced work for St. Vincent, Bob Moses and the lo-fi emo rap pioneer Lil Peep. This upcoming project is expected to be released on February 8 and it will be the first full-length album release for the band since Death Magic in 2015.
With Death Magic, the band went back to some of their earlier work, blending in the noise aesthetic present in their first two albums, with dark and brooding electro and industrial synths and instrumentation. As explained by a press release “They draped moody violence over trap beats and warehouse raves alike.”
In an interview with DIY Mag, the band members described the tenuous process in creating Death Magic, which was released a little under six years after the release of their sophomore album Get Color. They documented the numerous musical changes they wanted to make throughout the recording process.
“[Get Color]didn’t sound the way we wanted it to sound,” frontman Jake Duzsik explained in the interview. “And we really didn’t want to put out a third record like that. You either make two great records and you’re dead, or something crazy happens. Or you get there and you want your third record to be a definitive realisation of that sound. It’s not like we’re a band like Interpol who had their first record and their entire aesthetic was realised. It’s taken us a while.”
During this time they also began to work on other projects, which included soundtracks for videogames such as Max Payne 3 and GTA V. While working on the soundtracks, the band spent an excessive amount of time in the studio to work on getting their soundtracks perfect for it.
“That was the most unhealthy period of my life,” former keyboardist Jupiter Keyes elaborated in the interview. “I was personally obsessed with the project and threw myself into it in a way that compromised my relationships and my physical and mental well-being. I put on weight and had a steady diet of whiskey and pills. It was a function of a lot of personal things going on in my life but I guess you could call it ‘unintentional method scoring’…”
Yet despite these reservations Duzsik explained that it improved their last album. “I’m very glad we were involved in that project, Death Magic is a better record because of it,” Duzsik concluded.
Check out our review of HEALTH Live at the Masonic Lounge here.
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
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