What I mean by that is that, in their nearly two decade career, Health have created a sort of pattern in their releases, even from back before their sound solidified in this metallic electro-industrial one that they're currently in. For the longest while the pattern was to release a remix album like //Disco and :
isco2 and Disco3 right after each full length. The first dent in that pattern appeared after Vol.4 :: Slaves Of Fear, their first overtly metallic album, where the disco albums that followed, Disco4 :: PART I and Disco4 :: PART I, were not remixes, but new material of collaborations, but the band still released a remix album in their usual vein with Disco4+.The band did go towards an even stronger industrial metal presence on their two collaborative album, and that was a sound that eventually made its way towards a proper solo full length in Rat Wars, an album that ended up being my favorite of theirs (and yes, I did end up playing Cyberpunk 2077 afterwards). What was weird is that in the time since, there hasn't been a Disco5 following it, at least not yet. Instead, the next release from the band, Conflict DLC is entirely new material. Is this a case like Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty where the DLC rivals the base game in impact?
The reason why I'm unsure whether to call Conflict DLC the sixth main line Health album or whether it is a replacement of a potential Disco5 as a Rat Wars follow-up is because, on one hand the sound is a very close continuation of the sound of it, and on the other the "DLC" in the title has to be there for a reason. Considering how much I liked Rat Wars, I certainly don't mind more of that, and I think the "DLC" comes from the band setting the expectation about the album's lack of deviation and progression, being very open about its rehashing.
For me a lot of Rat Wars's impact came from how much it felt like a watershed moment in the band's discography, which is a feeling that is lost with a rehash, but Conflict DLC, also having twelve tracks and a similar forty-ish minutes runtime, delivers a package of similarly impactful songs, with the opener "Ordinary Loss" being some of the most immediately memorable the band has produced, and some electronic touches feeling quite novel for the band, like the downtempo in "Antidote" and the witch house in "You Died", or the continued metallic riffage being the strongest in tracks like "Vibe Cop" and "Shred Envy", to how cathartic the six-minute closer is.
I don't really want to claim that either Rat Wars or Conflict DLC is better than the other, or that they necessarily complement each other, but there's a pretty good chance that if the release order between the two was reversed, Conflict DLC would have my favorite Health tracks.
