With their harsh and haunting mix of dense guitars and synths and
Jake Duzsik's atmospheric vocals,
HEALTH express existential dread in evolving but unmistakable ways. They emerged from Los Angeles' experimental rock scene in the late 2000s with a pummeling yet intricate style exemplified by their 2007 self-titled debut. As the years passed, they refined this sound, letting their synth pop influences surface on 2015's
Death Magic and adding elements of trap and industrial to 2019's
Vol. 4 :: Slaves of Fear. On the two-part album
DISCO 4 :: Part 1 (2021) and
DISCO 4 :: Part 2 (2022),
HEALTH's collaborations with
Purity Ring,
Ghostemane,
Lamb of God, and
Nine Inch Nails emphasized the breadth and depth of their music.
Guitarist/vocalist
Jake Duzsik, bassist
John Famiglietti, drummer
B.J. Miller, and guitarist/keyboardist
Jupiter Keyes formed
HEALTH in 2005. The group played their first show six months after forming and soon became a part of Los Angeles' D.I.Y. noise scene, playing with like-minded local bands like
Ex Models,
No Age, and
Mika Miko. Soon after, they began recording at the city's underground venue/recording studio the Smell, using its cavernous brick acoustics and vintage microphones to capture their aggressive, concise songs.
HEALTH's 2007 remix of
Crystal Castles' "Crimewave" earned the band recognition outside of the L.A. scene. Their self-titled debut album -- which featured tribal drums, squealing guitars, asymmetrical bass lines, and a homemade guitar pedal/microphone called a Zoothorn -- arrived on Lovepump Records later that year. In turn,
Crystal Castles contributed remixes to 2009's //DISCO, which featured reworkings of
HEALTH tracks.
Following a tour with
Nine Inch Nails,
HEALTH released 2009's
Get Color, a more accessible set of songs that retained their debut's crunch. Another remix album, ::Disco2, arrived the following year and included contributions from
CFCF and
Pictureplane as well as
Crystal Castles.
HEALTH composed the score for 2012's Max Payne 3, which earned nominations for Best Score in a Game and Best Song in a Game (for the track "Tears") at that year's Spike Video Game Awards. They continued their foray into video game music in 2013 with "High Pressure Dave," a song inspired by
the Units' "High Pressure Days" that appeared in Grand Theft Auto V.
HEALTH also provided the music for GTA Online's Arena War.
The band returned in August 2015 with their third full-length,
Death Magic, which highlighted their music's synth pop and industrial leanings. A few months later,
Keyes left the group. In 2017,
HEALTH moved to Loma Vista for that February's
DISCO3, which featured reworkings by
Preoccupations,
Purity Ring, and Vessel; another EP of remixes, DISCO3+, appeared that June. The band also released several new tracks that year, including a cover of
New Order's "Blue Monday" for the soundtrack to Atomic Blonde and "Hard to Be a God," a collaboration with experimental hardcore producer
Nolife.
The following year,
HEALTH issued a string of singles with like-minded artists: They worked with Parisian synthwave artist
Perturbator on "BODY/PRISON," teamed with
Youth Code on "INNOCENCE," and joined forces with
Soccer Mommy and
Purity Ring on "MASS GRAVE." None of these tracks appeared on
Vol. 4 :: Slaves of Fear, a bleak, politically minded album that Loma Vista released in February 2019. The following October, the band gathered many of the tracks they issued prior to
Vol. 4 :: Slaves of Fear on
DISCO 4 :: Part 1, which also included collaborations with
Xiu Xiu,
Ghostemane, and
100 gecs, as well as the single "Cyberpunk 2.0 2.0," the only track solely by
HEALTH on the collection. The self-released
Disco4+, a remix version of the album, arrived in 2021.
HEALTH followed it in April 2022 with
DISCO 4 :: PART 2, another collection of collaborative tracks featuring "Isn't Everyone" with
Nine Inch Nails as well as team-ups with
Poppy,
Lamb of God, and
the Body. ~ Heather Phares & Jason Lymangrover