Serving nine mortal wounds in deserved retribution of clerical hubris Brooklyn, New York-based blackened death/thrash metal duo STRESS ANGEL return for an advanced course in riff-obsessed extreme thrashing diabolic retribution per this sophomore full-length album. All crosses inverted and merits doubled these folks have donned more serious gear, cut harder riffs, and generally given a well-considered boon beyond their quickly shredded out debut album ensuring that ‘Punished by Nemesis‘ is a best-yet representative vision beyond the explosive ancient fire they’d arrived with a handful of years ago. An obvious essential for 80’s extreme and sinister thrash-brained folks up front and a fortifying statement toward the band’s growing infamy otherwise.

Formed as a duo circa 2018 Stress Angel drummer/vocalist Manny Sores (Natur, ex-Occultation) and guitarist Nicolai Orifice set out to create high-speed heavy metal between the two of them, no plan or concept just cut riffs and go with it. The eventual result of their assemblage was a mid-to-late 80’s style extreme thrash metal sound which’d been first realized per a self-titled demo tape in 2020. At some point they’d gotten bassist and business bro Hank S. Blackyard (who might be Henry Yuan of Impure?) to assist with sessions for their debut LP (‘Bursting Church‘, 2021) a ruthless record which polished up all of the demo pieces and quickly scratched together four or five more. Inspired by first wave thrashing black metal, Teutonic thrash metal, and 80’s death metal I’d compared that debut to groups like Death Strike, Merciless‘ debut, and various other bands (see: Morbid, Tormentor, et al.) that’d skated the line between early black, death and thrash albeit loosely as these folks weren’t feigning primitivity or limiting the number of riffs attempted per song for the sake of an olden sound. Of course that’d meant it reviewed well and ended up at #30 on my Top 75 Albums of 2021 as their fast-and-loose approach felt authentic and the riffs held up.

If we can consider that debut LP a firebrand introduction to the group’s naturally explosive tendencies then this second LP is their vision beyond fire and brimstone wherein their sinister realm of thrashing death spreads itself thick within lengthier and at times mid-paced songs ever-focused on the impact of their riffs. As was the case prior ‘Punished by Nemesis‘ can be reduced to canonical forms per an 80’s evil heavy metal spiritus guiding Stress Angel‘s hand in every case, though this doesn’t leave the result entirely beige in its comingling shades of known quantities, in fact every piece here carries some considerable impact even when compared to the bloody-fisted cranking of the previous album and for the sake of bringing a set of well-differentiated songs one after another. Case in point, you’re not going to confused the ripping ‘Scream Bloody Gore‘-level (they probably prefer ‘Severed Survival‘) action of “Monsignor’s Wish” with the ‘Spiral Castle‘-era Manilla Road type sling of the riffcraft on “Ritual Debt” right afterwards yet these two songs make sense together within the overall rub of the full listen. All roads lead somewhere, be they horrifying or steeling in effect.

Where I would argue ‘Punished by Nemesis‘ lacks in immediate impact comes by way of a tempered but practical set of production values, or, the realistic sense of space they occupy in a live or rehearsal attuned setting. While I appreciate this sound (check the album, check the live show and they square up proper) and the time it takes to sink into their groove it may read as glazed-over to anyone without an ear for the old ways and live-thrashing death metal in general. The forward-set reverberations of the band echo from a wide boxed-in space with the drums occupying both basement and sub-basement depth, a rooted kick which leaves the guitars coursing on their own shoulder level atmosphere alongside with the echoing rasp of the vocals. This time around the bass frequencies receive a considerable overall boost without blowing out the headphone experience, a sharp enough bass guitar tone rounding out the depth of the drum kit without escaping the overall bluntness of the performances, leaving enough space for keyboards/synth to infuse some of the best pieces on the album (“Ancient Weakness”, “Punished by Nemesis”, etc.) with creeped arcane energy. Grinding through in concerted motion this yields an entirely organic result though one which naturally rescinds its vocal performances behind the intentional focus upon the riffs and the beating behind them. As we get around to the more performative verve of songs, such as “Missionary Zeal” and especially closer “Ministerial Road”, on the back half of the record the echoing distance of these production values make far more sense at peak immersion.

Side A does a fine enough job of showcasing what a couple years of touring and jamming on new songs can do for a band like Stress Angel, picking up on a new level of performative finesse available when reaching for their intended sound, a level of comfort with the medium which allows for a knockout song like “Ritual Debt” to translate from record to a live setting without any gimmickry applied. You might run into a riff or two you’ve heard a hundred variations upon but always delivered with some manner of intensity, such as the main verse riff which hits around ~27 seconds into “Close to the Presence of Suffering” a short song that otherwise finds its own fire within blasted sections which most clearly take us to that indeterminate black/death headspace as the rift between sub-genres was still being loosely defined. Though I could probably argue that there was a more of a madcap energy to ‘Bursting Church‘ hitting a song like this helps build an argument for heavier and deeper stylized songcraft held within ‘Punished by Nemesis‘.

So, there is depth created here and while I’d stop short of considering this album a point of maturation (plenty more effort invested here, though) these folks do well to operate with some serious taste in the real thing and their own vision of thrashing morbid metal beyond the usual trickle-down inspiration of old. At ~40 minutes and nine songs ‘Punished by Nemesis‘ is equal in its ask but far more impactful than the band’s debut, building upon the bloodiest blasphemic action of their introduction in a few unexpected ways. As such you could pick it up and enjoy it as a riff album, just an ‘old school’ rip through, or seek out the nuances of each song and appreciate some manner of “progress” incurred within these compositions but either way I’d walked away from this album appreciating the expansion upon the Stress Angel personae and this growing reputation as a threat in the realm of evil riff-obsessed death/thrash metal. A high recommendation.

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