CONFLICT DLC, the sixth full-length from Los Angeles industrial trio HEALTH, is a dense, emotionally charged collision of industrial rhythms, electronic textures, and metal-tinged intensity that feels both urgent and cathartic. Released in December 2025 via Loma Vista Recordings, the album presents twelve tracks that oscillate between bleak introspection and visceral sonic impact.
From the opening salvo ORDINARY LOSS, CONFLICT DLC establishes its tone: bleak, heavy, and reflective. The lyrics grapple with grief, loss, and existential dread, but the band delivers these themes with an oddly compelling energy, almost a defiant dance in the face of despair. Tracks like TRASH DECADE and VIBE COP are built on driving industrial percussion and layered electronics, giving the album both brutality and groove.
Musically, the record feels like a refined extension of HEALTH’s recent evolution, combining their signature abrasive textures with more varied pacing and occasional melodic hooks. There is a sense of cinematic drama in the production, thanks in part to the work of producer STINT and mixers Drew Fulk and Lars Stalfors. The result is heavy without sacrificing clarity, and atmospheric without drifting into abstraction.
Moments of vulnerability stand alongside the aggression. Songs like DON’T KILL YOURSELF reveal a quieter, more emotional core beneath the noise, while YOU DIED delivers eerie, almost chant-like hooks that linger. Meanwhile, instrumental passages such as TORTURE II give the album a cinematic ebb and flow, allowing brief respites before plunging back into chaos.
Critically, CONFLICT DLC has been well received, with many reviewers noting that while it does not drastically reinvent HEALTH’s sound, it sharpens it, delivering some of their most accessible yet thematically potent material to date. The album’s blend of industrial metal, electronic body music, and emotional lyricism makes it compelling both for long-time fans and curious newcomers.
Overall, CONFLICT DLC is heavy, cathartic, and thematically unflinching, a record that invites listeners to confront darkness head-on, finding a strange solace in pounding beats and haunting melodies. Whether you are drawn to its aggressive surges or its introspective moments, this is an album that sticks with you long after the final notes fade.
