HEALTH has never been long-winded in their lyrics or anything less than immediate in their sound. “Replace me/I don’t belong/You cared for me/And then forgot,” sings Jacob Duszik over blaring industrial pulses and thrash riffs on “VIBE COP,” a preview single from his band’s sixth album, CONFLICT DLC. Then he takes, perhaps, the voice of whoever abandoned the narrator: “Follow your dreams/Just keep ‘em to yourself.” HEALTH is gleefully flippant in marketing their music (especially on their tremendously entertaining Instagram and TikTok accounts, not to mention their merch store) but deadly serious in the work itself. This fusion makes them well-suited for the terminally online era.
In fact, HEALTH put our device-numb way of living on trial throughout CONFLICT DLC—while also understanding that we were beaten into this by unstoppable forces. Over the midtempo clank of electro-industrial percussion and wall-like riffs of “THOUGHT LEADER,” Duszik sings “Lay in the dark/Stare at the screen” like a seducing devil to open the first verse, only to name the forces driving our doom in the next verse: “Holy money/Forgot about love.” Subtle? Fuck no. But neither was “Head Like a Hole,” and HEALTH is unafraid of similar directness. (Press materials for the album name screen addiction as a direct focus of the record.)
HEALTH presents CONFLICT DLC as both a distinct work and the C and D sides of a double album that began with 2023’s RAT WARS. The records have similar sonic blueprints (particularly their embrace of thrash and death metal) and flow well when played back to back. That said, CONFLICT DLC takes some bolder sonic turns—diving headfirst into hardstyle techno on “BURN THE CANDLES”; exploring new strains of metalcore and dream pop throughout.
It also feels more interested in catharsis than the grinding-chainsaw rage of RAT WARS. This leads to a lot of self-loathing lyrics that can, at times, seem one-note. But the dynamics at play in songs like “TRASH DECADE” and “YOU DIED” make the ends of songs register as completed purges of horrid emotions. You feel as though you’ve primally screamed and can move onto the next challenge, rather than wincing from the last battle. (“CHILDREN OF SORROW” perhaps best exemplifies my feeling of how RAT WARS featured songs that drew blood and left those wounds open. I love that song and also feel torn to shreds by it every time I hear it. This seems by design.)
Perhaps the progression from destruction to catharsis is what Duszik referred to when he called DLC “more aggressive and more desperate … but also more fun” than its predecessor. As much as HEALTH wryly employs the mantra “DON’T KILL YOURSELF” in its meme-heavy marketing, it functions—again, not subtly, but so what—as an empathetic expression. When they give a song that title on this album and use the lyric “I don’t want to kill myself but I don’t want to live this way,” it’s not a joke or an oversimplification. Sometimes, that’s just how low you feel.
CONFLICT DLC is a clear musical step forward for HEALTH as a distinct band and a user of the studio as an instrument. To the former end, the rhythm section of John Fermiglietti and Benjamin Miller seems more locked in than ever before (notably on “VIBE COP” and “SHRED ENVY”). Meanwhile, co-producer and unofficial fourth member Stint carefully adds layers of keyboard /synth textures, multitracking, reverb, and programmed beats that add up to precision-measured chaos. Duszik, of course, is essential as ever—the songs live or die on the impact of his near-whispered melodies atop the roaring-rampage arrangements. There seems almost a tenderness in certain vocals, interestingly at the album’s bookends: “ORDINARY LOSS” and “WASTED YEARS.”
HEALTH is neither poised to become mainstream nor wants to be. (Though it’d be a kick to see them explaining the anal plug in their merch store to talk-show hosts.) Instead, they’re perhaps better attuned to the world so many people actually live in than just about any other rock band—a term I’m using in loose fashion—currently active. This last bit may not sound complimentary, but I assure you it is: The sound of CONFLICT DLC embodies the desperate scrolling motions of a finger atop a mobile screen. The infinite scream in so many minds that such behavior intends to drown out. The click of the off switch on our distractions as we prepare to face whatever new horrors the mid-2020s bring us.
Label: Loma Vista
Year: 2025
Similar Albums:
HEALTH : CONFLICT DLC
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