Footage from the May 21 show in Paris now available

Human Impact have released a live video of Collapse, recorded during their set at Petit Bain, a floating venue moored along the Seine in Paris. The footage captures one of the few European dates in support of Gone Dark, the band’s second album, released in May 2024 through Ipecac Recordings. The video was directed by Jim Coleman, also responsible for much of the band’s visual output, and recorded on 21 May 2024.

Title: Gone Dark
Artist: Human Impact
Genres: Alternative Rock, Noise Rock
Label: Ipecac Recordings
Description: Human Impact share live video for Collapse recorded in Paris during their 2024 European tour in support of Gone Dark, out via Ipecac Recordings.

The performance documents the group’s current lineup—Jim Coleman, Chris Spencer, Eric Cooper, and Jon Syverson—in an environment more stripped down than the album’s heavy mix, emphasizing the precision of its rhythmic underpinnings. Unlike the denser studio production on Gone Dark, the live sound exposes some of the structural mechanics behind tracks like Collapse, with Syverson’s drumming anchoring a set built around repetition and rupture rather than narrative progression.

The show at Petit Bain was part of a short tour which also included dates in Berlin and London. No further dates have been announced since the conclusion of this run. The band had not performed live for several years before these shows, due in part to the pandemic-related shutdown that followed the release of their 2020 debut.

The track Collapse originally appears as the closing cut on Gone Dark, an album recorded at Hoboken Recorders and produced by Alan Camlet. The record avoids conventional sequencing and instead builds tension incrementally, leaving little space for resolution. The video performance adheres closely to that ethos, with minimal audience interaction and a focus on repetition over climax.

Retrofuturista previously published an interview with Human Impact, conducted in May 2024, which discusses the recording process, the absence of long-term planning, and the operational disconnect between the members’ previous projects.

Human Impact was formed in New York and consists of four musicians from separate but intersecting areas of the American noise and heavy underground. Jim Coleman previously worked with Cop Shoot Cop and Swans, mainly contributing electronics and sound design. Chris Spencer is the guitarist and vocalist behind Unsane, active since the late 1980s, and a central figure in the development of the noise-rock subgenre through his work with labels such as Amphetamine Reptile and Matador. Eric Cooper played bass in Made Out of Babies and Bad Powers, bands associated with Neurot Recordings. Jon Syverson, best known as the drummer of Daughters, also contributed to several other projects including The Sawtooth Grin and As the Sun Sets. Human Impact debuted with a self-titled album in 2020 and returned in 2024 with Gone Dark, recorded during intermittent sessions following an extended hiatus.

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