With Nine Inch Nails settling down to write globally-renowned soundtracks for Disney and the like, industrial music needs a band to push the envelope again and become the genre’s new saviours, with forward-thinking collaborations, club-ready beats and hypnotic vocal lines. Horny music, for horny people, as they put it.
Following a rainy and miserable drive over from Yorkshire, the wonderful O2 Ritz (I’ve spent many a night here, when living in Manchester, and this was also where I interviewed The 1975…cheap plug) greeted me with its wonderful vibes, and welcoming team.
Entering the dark, but expansive room, just in time for HEALTH (though I did catch the end of GOST’s excellent, throbbing cyberpunk set), the room is, rather predictably, full of goths and rivetheads looking for a fix. It’s an interesting cultural mix tonight – older people in Ministry shirts, and young’uns in Sleep Token tees – it’s worth acknowledging that the latter band’s popularity (and HEALTH’s support slots with them) has probably contributed to the venue being upgraded from the 520 cap Rebellion in Manchester, to the 1,500 O2 Ritz.
It’s also worth remembering that HEALTH have been slogging away since the early 00s in punk clubs and bars before getting to arenas and near-sold out UK venues.
It is that punk ethos that serves them so well, in my view. Tonight, there are no frills, and no encores…just a banging light show, fronted by ferocious, blood-pumping nu-goth anthems like ‘DEMIGODS’ and ‘ASHAMED’, and cult favourites like ‘TEARS’ (from Max Payne 3), ‘STONEFIST’ and ‘BODY/PRISON’.
HEALTH are now world-beaters, thrusting the industrial genre into the mainstream and pop culture through their excellent use of social media, and weird, but practical merchandise. Indeed, HEATH understand themselves as a band, brand and full-throttle, energetic live experience, and it is all-encompassing and utterly enthralling to behold.
