Harsh Reality by Stress Positions

Review written by Jools Cacophony

Hailing from the rust belt of Chicago, Stress Positions unleash pent up aggression and snarky attitudes from the COVID 19 pandemic on their album Harsh Reality, released December 8th 2023. With 17 minutes of raw unrelenting hardcore punk grooves with accompanying breakdowns, with lyrics that leave you room to think. Stephanie Brook’s screeching reminds me of Cerce’s lead singer, Becca Cadalezo; she leads the listener into every song with emotionally charged lyrics.

Echoing heavy feelings of discouragement of living a happy life forced by the state of the world, criticizing the flooding inflation on the lower class, bashing white supremacy, the police state, government powers, white male mediocrity, questioning morality, and a general call to action to “rise above the poverty line’’ and to kick the police’s teeth in. Stephanie is able to encapsulate her anger into a fiery ball of lyrics that is able to reflect the same notions of stress and panic during the pandemic. The lyrics echo loudly even though they are deeply embedded into the wall of sound. They’re a call to action for people to take a stand in their way of living, to not take shit from nobody. There are no breaks on this record, the only sluggish parts being the first 15 seconds of the album and the intro to the last track. Each song is able to feed and bounce off the others; they just keep cranking and screeching, building energy throughout the listening of the project.

Until the last song. I like the direction of the ending track as it starts to depart away from the rest of the album sonically. The lyrics are presented subtly passionately, and then hit you with a change in tone and go back to their old business of playing hardcore music. It sounds like something that could be in a different project of theirs, making me excited to see what’s next. The lightning fast drumming done by Jonathan Giralt is pounding; perfectly timed taps on the cymbals that are the driving force behind every song. The dialog between bass and drums are perfect, in line, and in groove. On bass is Russell Harrison, carrying the rhythm allowing the drums to spazz out and take more risks over the steady, rhythmic bass lines. Guitarist Benyamin Rudolph reminds me of punk legend Greg Ginn’s style, allowing the guitar to screech over the other members, playing fast power chords that transition to even faster guitar solos.

I first encountered Stress Positions’s music while waiting to see Ceremony in Chicago. While living it up on the north side and biking around Lincoln Park, I downloaded and listened to all the opening bands’ latest releases. Stress Positions was on the bill. When I got to their album I was hit with their harsh reality. It was so powerful ,fast, vibrant, and angry, key things for great hardcore music. Instead of going crazy in the mosh pit when they performed I instead was absorbing all elements of the band. Their presence on stage was firm and present. I got lost in the amp that was whirring air in my face. My mind melted to the beat of the drums. And the bass player looked like a nerd and had a millennial semi-burly mustache, so I knew he was going to be killer and I’d die in the pit. Stephanie Brook demanded the stage and didn’t give it back. Pacing around like a caged animal, putting her whole body and emotion into every belting lyric, delivered with intensity and precision. The same can be said for the drums, every song is delivered with insanity and precision. They played the same way their EPs and albums go, with no breaks, each song bleeding into the next and transitioning seamlessly. Every Chicagoan millennial punk seemed to enjoy the sonic power of Stress Positions’s circle moshing along to them, or taking pictures of them on their Polaroid camera. The show and spectacle of Stress Positions was amazing, along with their fast, exhilarating, and with a politically charged up attitude.

Harsh Reality by Stress Positions is a sonic explosion with peaks and valleys that echoes the rhetoric of the Covid-19 pandemic. The record takes you on a non-stop ride that explores socioeconomic dividers and angsty political views that call people into action. As you listen to this project your brain will be hit with constant dopamine as the breakdowns and beatdowns are infectious and hot to the touch. The lyrics are ironic but are poetically truthful and to the point to punch and poke the 1% that run this country. All in all, I really enjoyed Harsh Reality, it reminded me of the gritty early Black Flag EPs, along with the contemporary band Taqbir, with their unrelenting sound and fury. It made me excited about hardcore music again, a love that is fleeting for me. It made me bounce off all the other great hardcore bands and I think that in itself makes it a great hardcore album; not much new hardcore music makes me think of The Dead Kennedys and Bad Brains. That then lead me down a punk rabbit hole all over again, and it starts with Stress Positions.