Watch For Your Health’s video for intense new song “Birthday Candles in the Effigy”

Gina Alexander

Ohio screamo band For Your Health left a big impression with their 2019 split with Shin Guard (Death of Spring) and their Nosebleeds EP, and now they're gearing up to release their first full-length album, In Spite Of, on February 12 via Twelve Gauge (pre-order at the Deathwish webstore). They recently debuted some of the new songs in a killer live session, and now we're premiering the album's lead single and its video, "Birthday Candles in the Effigy."

As good as Death of Spring and Nosebleeds are, this new single suggests that For Your Health's debut album is about to be a gigantic leap. The slightly cleaner production really opens up their sound, which has only gotten more captivating in the past year. The bulk of the song finds For Your Health at their most chaotic and intense, but it does a 180 towards the end with soaring clean vocals over a post-rocky climax. It's really a hell of a song and it comes with a video that contrasts one of the band's powerful performances with ballerina dancing by Virginia "Gin" Garner.

"I feel like this video, and this song, really encapsulate how we feel about In Spite Of and For Your Health as a whole," the band tells us. "Ballerinas are people who can turn their bodies into art, but that level of commitment comes at a great physical and emotional cost to them: bruised and bloodied feet; forcing themselves to stay underweight; burning themselves out at a young age. And yet all those things are covered in satin and converted into something beautiful, cathartic, and powerful in performance. We see ourselves in that, just as much as we see capitalism, systemic oppression, and even COVID in the abusive dance instructor. For Your Health is about us and our listeners using our music as a vessel to overcome pain and create something beautiful, in spite of everything around us."

The video was directed by Turnstyle Films' Jon Nix (who also did the recent Anti-Flag documentary and upcoming Justin Pearson documentary), who adds, "I was really excited to work with For Your Health again. Hayden and I met years ago at a Touche Amore show in Pittsburgh, and kept in touch. It has been pretty amazing to see them grow artistically. The new album is something really special and I can't wait for people to hear it. I knew I wanted to be a part of its release, even if it was something small."

Watch the new video and also watch the recent live session if you haven't already, below.

Tracklist
01. birthday candles in the effigy
02. i slept with wes eisold and all i got was an out of court settlement
03. push the fucking rock, sisy
04. abscess makes the heart grow
05. the day of black sun
06. save your breath, you're gonna need it to blow my head off
07. if anybody asks, we're already fucked
08. you're so united ninety-three, we're so flight one eighty
09. like a thirteenth floor elevator
10. everyday at 13:12
11. thank you for the venmo
12. this city will crumble and many people will die