Review: Nev Pearce
Photography: Luke Petty

Last year industrial noise rock band HEALTH released ‘Rat Wars’, a record that not only broke new ground for the trio but also ended up claiming the top spot on many albums of the year lists, including my own.
And while the band have been around for almost 20 years, released five studio albums, several remix/collab records and written songs for video games such as Max Payne 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, the last couple of years have seen HEALTH gain global notoriety as one of the best live acts around and an unpredictable genre blending force in the industry.

On the band’s previous tour of Australia, they played Brisbane as a sideshow to their appearance at Tasmania’s Dark Mofo which I sadly missed but have been told by many that it was one of those things you had to be there to witness and left people talking about for weeks after which only made me more keen to finally see them.

Tonight’s sold-out show is being held at the Brightside’s outdoor stage with the cool winter air adding to the atmosphere and the alt crowd shuffling into the venue in droves, there is a buzz of excitement that has us feeling we are in for something special and that which I later found was an understatement.

Opening the show tonight is ex-High Tension vocalist Karina Utomo with electronic artist Joshua Wells.
Utomo is hands down one of the best performers in the country, her energy and fury with High Tension were unmatched and intimidating but tonight shows a different side to her musical personality.

The set starts with Utomo giving Acknowledgement of Country, her calm and polite demeanour then unfolds into an unnerving display of Growls, screams and looped black metal screeches and chants over Wells beats and atmospheric synths.

It’s interesting and unexpected, to see Karina use her full range of vocals is impressive and leaves an impression but not music you would put on late at night driving alone on a dark road, pure horror in audio form that would be suited as a soundtrack to a grainy found footage film, intense stuff

Main support for the tour is Brisbane fairy trap artist Zheani who has built up a global following and opened for other big-name artists since she hit the scene.

Her performance is high energy for the duration and going by the crowd response it is evident that she is adored in her home city.
Scantily clad but wearing enough attitude to compensate to sell her brand of shock, the Brisbane crowd ate up every word screamed from the PA. Angsty, angry and sickly sweet, Zheani gyrates and bounces around the stage as she delivers her erotica-infused hypnotic performance gaining a few new followers along the way.

Tonight is the last stop on the Rat Based Warfare Down Under tour and by the time the cum metal legends hit the stage the venue is packed wall to wall.
As the theme song from Evangelion Neon Genesis plays through the PA, the trio are greeted by cheers and thunderous applause as they rip into IDENTITY followed by GOD BOTHERER and CRACK METAL which sound incredible and a strong way to kick off their set.

The band are not only tight but sounds monstrous, B.J. Miller is one of the heaviest hitters and reminds me of my favourite drummer Joe Letz minus the kit trashing.
Being the only act on the lineup with a live drummer gives weight to their songs and every hit feels like a kick to the chest when blended with the electronic beats and synths.

Bassist/producer/meme master John Famiglietti is super energetic and throws his whole body into the performance including some brutal windmills when the heavy riffage kicks in on tracks like FUTURE OF HELL and DEMIGODS and even grabs the mic a few times to throw in some screams here and there to add to the intensity of those moments.

Vocalist Jake Duzsik is a man of few words but when he does he is engaging to the fans, at one point he mentioned he was losing his voice and was having trouble hitting his full high register but it was hard to notice.
Duzsik sounded pretty amazing, especially when it came to delivering some of the more emotionally driven tracks like ASHAMED, UNLOVED and their cover of Deftones Be Quiet and Drive which was a highlight of their set and a great interpretation.

The thing that impressed me the most was their production which was simple but extremely effective and one of the best I have seen used at that venue, it goes to prove that you can have all the video screens, bells and whistles but sometimes stripping it back to some fog and good lighting timed to the music can be all you need to make an impact and that’s something that HEALTH know how to do extremely well

As the evening came to a close, Jake addressed and thanked the fans one last time, telling them that they refused to do the walk-off encore thing and instead offered them one last chance to enjoy the moment with DSM-V which was one hell of a way to wrap things up.

This was my first HEALTH live experience and hopefully not the last, not only was it memorable but also possibly the only time we will get the chance to see them in this intimate setting before they return to play a much bigger venue next time, let’s hope its sooner rather than later.