HEALTH’s 2023 full-length RAT WARS was a bold expansion of the long-running trio’s industrial, electronic, pop and metal-seared vision. The outfit continue to grow via the release of a their just-delivered RAT WARS ULTRA EDITION, which comes bolstered with a brand-new track called “FREE TO DIE” that features guest vocals from Filter’s Richard Patrick.
The song begins with echo-heavy guitar strums and airy, melancholy vocals, but quickly booms towards industrial-crunching guitar chords and a gear-grinding mechanical four-on-the-floor beat. Between HEALTH vocalist Jake Duzsik and Filter frontman Patrick, the pair paint a bleak and bleary picture (“I’m tired of living/I’m tired of feeling like this”), but the song manages to feel anthemic and uplifting despite that dispiritedness.
You can check out the heavy-swinging industrial rager up above.
The newly beefed-up RAT WARS ULTRA EDITION comprises the original album and extras including “FREE TO DIE,” the collaborative “ASHAMED” redux with Chvrches vocalist Lauren Mayberry, HEALTH’s Spotify Singles cover of Deftones’ “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)”, and their “THE DRAIN” team-up with Bad Omens and SWARM, which had originally appeared on Bad Omens’ CONCRETE JUNGLE [THE OST].
The ULTRA EDITION is streaming in full now.
RAT WARS ULTRA EDITION tracklisting:
DEMIGODS
FUTURE OF HELL
HATEFUL (ft. Sierra)
OF ALL ELSE
CRACK METAL
UNLOVED
CHILDREN OF SORROW
SICKO (ft. GODFLESH)
ASHAMED (OF BEING BORN)
DSM-V
DON’T TRY
FREE TO DIE (ft. Filter)
BE QUIET AND DRIVE (FAR AWAY)
ASHAMED (ft. Lauren Mayberry)
THE DRAIN (ft. Bad Omens and SWARM)