As much as I don’t mind the occasional tussle with hair metal and classic-in-their-own-mind albums from the ‘80s Sunset Strip, I admittedly don’t put a lot of stock in the hairspray-doused philosophies and opinions emerging from behind all that lipstick. To this day I still can’t refrain from shaking my head in horrified shame when re-watching The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years. So, when one of the guitarists in the present-day lineup of L.A. Guns gushed positively in the press pack accompanying Stress Test’s forthcoming, self-titled debut album, I dismissed it with latent and inherent amounts of prejudice. Hey, we’re all entitled to our childish grudges, aren’t we?
However, when a gentleman known as Ace Von Johnson commented about Stress Test by saying, “It’s like early Napalm Death and Dystopia had a thrash baby,” I took notice and had to admit his estimation was pretty spot-on. In addition to his past and present positions in Faster Pussycat and L.A. Guns, Von Johnson’s background includes time spent in U.S. Bombs, the Generators, Unwritten Law and Murphy’s Law so he knows how to “make some noise” as well as “rock with the boys,” so to speak. All this to say that if the manic, hardcore punk goodness of this Portland-based outfit — which features current and former members of Unto Others, Drouth, Iron Scepter and Spellcaster — can have this kind of across-the-board appeal, it’s definitely worth a whirl whether you’re wearing a Skid Row shirt and a wrist full of jangly bracelets or sporting a threadbare Aus-Rotten hoodie and shitty stick-and-poke tattoos.
Today’s stream of “Something Rather Than Nothing” from Stress Test is your chance to find out what the hubbub is all about! The album is set for official release next week (February 28th) via Transylvanian Recordings and the album’s closer is a dynamic slab of tempo massaging, crossover thrash that, at 2:52, is epic-length in comparison to the preceding ten tracks. Says guitarist/vocalist Brandon Hill about the tune: “Why is there something rather than nothing? It’s a common philosophical question, and most of the time it’s answered by either explaining that there can be no answer, or unsurprisingly, ascribing it to God’s will. I think a question I’m more interested in than ‘why do we exist,’ though, is ‘why should we?’ Is it better to have never existed at all? That is a question that you can only answer by living, and probably the kind that drives people to ideas like God and Heaven in the first place – or gets them stoned to death, depending on when and where they had the bad fortune of being born. Why do we spend our short lives craving meaning and purpose when we’re also cursed with a brain evolved enough to recognize that these things exist only in our imaginations?”
Stress Test was recorded and mixed by Gabe Johnston at Falcon Studios (Unto Others, Hoaxed) and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Integrity, Obituary). It will be released by Oakland-based Transylvanian Recordings on February 28th, 2025. Pre-order it, here.