Not all music is overtly political. In the case of Stress Positions however, (and latest EP Human Zoo) there should be no doubt that the malice dripping from every note of their face-ripping hardcore punk is laser focussed on specific targets. This is, after all, the band who proclaimed “No justice, no peace, no sympathy for the police” on their debut full-length Harsh Reality from 2023. 

On Human Zoo (Three One G Records), their targets range from Western colonialism to Right Wing military indoctrination—the message delivered via explosions of head-spinning percussion, ominous, grooving bass, zig-zagging guitars and vocalist Stephanie Brooks coming off like a screaming alarm, yelling a dire warning that the apocalypse is upon us. 

These explosions can be delivered in barely over a minute (as on the rabid, flailing cacophony of “Fragile” or jerking, veering tumble of “Nakba”) or given a little more room to evolve as with the Jesus-Lizard-on-meth-on-fire grooves of the title track. 

On the latter track, Brooks actually turns down the intensity at moments before slamming back into the red as guitarist Ben Rudolph’s malevolent guitar lines rip and slice.    

The band’s uncontainable vitriol is exemplified on “Blood Money”—the rhythm section charging like a flogged horse, galloping to the edge of exhaustion, the guitars a veering wild animal, thrashing about to escape the jaws of a trap, and Brooks the epitome of raging fire. If you aren’t feeling the intent at this point, perhaps the message isn’t for you. 

Through the band’s often-100mph delivery and Brooks’ turbo-charged shrieks, the exact lyrics may not always be entirely clear, but there’s no question what is being addressed on the (kind of) closing track “Kaddish” featuring recorded prayers mix with ominous synths and snippets of news reports detailing the current plight of the Palestinian people. The track’s final looping sample, “Every life is a human life and every human is you” playing over a woozy synth hits just as hard as the the EP’s previous six tracks of hardcore punk thunder.   

Three remixes close out the EP, each one recasting the band through an electro-industrial lens (a backdrop no less fitting with Brooks’ seething screams on top of them). 

Human Zoo is 22 minutes of righteous fury. Stress Positions are the conscience of a Western society screaming to get out of its box. 

Follow Stress Positions on Instagram.

Buy Human Zoo on coloured vinyl.