Los Angeles bruisers Health return as rude and exhilarating as ever with second album Get Color. If their self-titled debut was an overwhelming exercise in musical chaos theory, then this outing is altogether more focused. Whereas before their songs exploded shrapnel-like in disparate directions, here they’ve brought a tighter focus to bear, channelling their aggression to impressive effect. There are even melodies, albeit melodies buried beneath avalanches of corrosive guitar, primitive drums and wraith-like chanting. At times, in fact, it sounds like Enya having a total and utter mental breakdown.
‘In Heat’ bullies its way to our attention, rhythms clattering you like elbows to the back of the head as the guitar whines with all the menace of the dentist’s drill. The ferocity dips for ‘Die Slow’, its brilliant melody wrapped in harsh sandpaper tones. At these relatively tender moments, Health recall the ethereal shoegaze of School Of Seven Bells. Generally, however, they’re as nasty and uncompromising as a bad drunk. Powered by berserk drums, ‘Nice Girls’ is a squealing barrage of raw sonics, whilst the looped electronica and maniacal surge of ‘Death+’ evokes Crystal Castles.
However, if there’s one band whom Health resemble more than any other, it’s Suicide. The similarity is there in the cyclical grind of ‘In Violet’ and the anguished howl of ‘We Are Water’. All told, Get Color may be an occasionally hard listen, but its brute power is easy to appreciate.