Demo:listen: Stress Angel

Today New York City-based death thrash trio Stress Angel release their excoriating self-titled debut. 6 tracks of gritty death-ripping madness from the grime-filled streets straight to your pain-thirsty skull.

The band’s founding member Manny Soares says Stress Angel was originally a solo project. They continue, “Had some riffs for a few years. Had a few friends help organize them. Didn’t go anywhere. Then my old comrade Nicolai Orifice moved close by and we began resurrecting some of these old songs. We immediately got working on new material and before we knew it we were on the warpath. Our friend Dozer was eager for some action and joined us on the bass rig for the demo recordings but has since moved on to the facility known as Stone Henge. RIP.”

They explain how they decided to thrash old school death, “Well after 15 years of playing in this style we found out there was an opening on the bandwagon and we decided to jump on.”

Stress Angel

According to Manny, the name Stress Angel is “inspired by the fact that both he “and Nicolai suffer from indescribable anxiety.” He says, “We knew stress must be included in the name and then we both looked in the mirror at our angelic faces and the rest was history.”

The writing process behind Stress Angel’s music, Manny says goes as follows: “Well we usually come up with some ideas on our own watch. Then when we get together we drink a lot. Then we mash the stuff together until it comes out in a smooth and orderly fashion. The first song I think we wrote together was called ‘Root Under a Tilted Gravestone’ which is not on the tape but maybe we will use it someday. We’ve already written a handful of new materials for some kind of album perhaps.”

Stress Angel covers a variety of topics in it lyrics, including “Suffering!” Manny says, as well as  “mostly nice subjects such as pedophelia in the church, suicide, overdosing on drugs, forced demoniac sex, being kidnapped and tortured. Just life stuff.”  

Stress Angel recorded their demo themselves. “We recorded ourselves live with a janky 4 mic set up in our rehearsal room on the first day of the Covid lockdown,” Manny explains. “It was dark times in this city. It was all we could do to stay alive.”

The demo is out on tape today from Stygian Black Hand. “Stygian Black Hand is horny to release this filth and we are grateful for this,” Manny says.  

“Nicolai and Myself have been writing loads of material for a future release,” Manny says, concerning the future of Stress Angel. “We’ve lost a bassist, then we got a new one but he will probably go away and we will need another one. That’s how it goes. Maybe once this TV flu goes away we can play a live show for once. But we doubt it.”