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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