Health announces long-awaited album, ‘Death Magic,’ is due Aug. 7

After six years, one groundbreaking video game score, a few high-profile festival appearances and a major change in record labels, the L.A. experimental band Health finally has a new album ready. And it’s already turning stomachs.

“Death Magic,” the quartet’s first formal LP since 2009’s “Get Color,” will be released Aug. 7, the band announced. A new Health record has been perpetually anticipated by fans for half a decade.

This announcement signals a major step up for the band, which has long been one of the city’s best live acts and inventive arrangers of raw noise and eerie vocal melodies. “Death Magic” is being released on Loma Vista, the label co-founded by former Warner Bros. and Interscope executive Tom Whalley, which counts major indie-crossover acts St. Vincent, Rhye and Spoon on its roster.

Health has not been dormant -- it has played FYF and Coachella in recent years and composed reams of original music for Rockstar Games’ “Max Payne 3.”

But the first hints of the new LP, as heard in the music video for the song “New Coke,” suggest a new fidelity, heaviness and precision, along with a marked clarity in singer Jake Duzsik’s vocals. Collaborators include Mars Volta producer Lars Stalfors, longtime Kanye West engineer Andrew Dawson and the harsh electronic artist Haxan Cloak.

The “New Coke” clip [Warning: The video contains images of projectile vomiting] also proves the band members have lost none of their antagonistic streak. In the video, a moody and surreal after-hours party ends in a slow-motion binge and purge all over the bathroom of a nightclub. As for what to expect: The band noted on Twitter that, “Yes...it’s real puke,” so take their word for it if you were expecting a quiet morning.

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