Despite having just been released a couple of weeks ago, the latest outing from Stress Spells has been on my radar since early-December when I heard a quick clip while scrolling through Instagram—that was enough to grab my attention, 'cause it turns out: this album kinda rules.
I've been known to have quite a penchant for metallic hardcore out of New Jersey, but Stress Spells certainly represents a different branch of that tree, building from a foundation of semi-chaotic late-'90s/early-2000s metalcore with discordant riffing that could be loosely compared to classic era Botch, Converge and the like (hell, even Parallax, a personal favorite of mine) while also leaning into an abrasive, multi-vocal screamo type of sound.
Still, the guitars chug a little more than one might expect, there are some melodic undercurrents, plenty of those rolling hammer-on/pull-off runs, and even some mathy rhythms (check "Frayed at the Ends" especially). Really cool musicianship, overall. I very much appreciate the subtle technicality happening with the layering and arrangements. They're not exactly rewriting the book, but such killer riffs and powerful songwriting are clearly better than average and stand out right off the bat. Awesome.
Hearts Never Tire is out now on 12" vinyl (nine songs in about 22 minutes, so I'd consider that an EP)—100 on blue/white/silver sunburst, 200 on blue/white swirl—through Fuzz Records and on Bandcamp. I don't see it on Spotify (fine by me, Spotify blows), but you can stream using Apple Music, YouTube, etc.
