Stressor "No More Panic"

(Crazy Love Records 2014)

Hit The Pig
No More Panic
Magician
Bye Bye, Love
200 Bones
Bang
November Song
Beautiful Bird
Woodpecker Rock
Evil Dark Road
Fool Fool Fool
Dance Like A Monkey
Earthquake Coming

 

I got in to psychobilly via the rockabilly route like many of the first (and perhaps second) generation psychobilly brigade did. Rockabilly had become watered down for mass consumption and there was nothing new or exciting about it. Then along comes its mental first cousin psychobilly giving the whole thing a well deserved kick in the scrotum. Now we fast forward to the present. Psychobilly is still going strong but like its Peter Perfect rockabilly cousin, a high percentage of it is just the same tired old formulaic growling with a repetitive click. Enter Stressor. Yes the classic psychobilly formula is there but it’s what they do with those ingredients that sets them apart. The vocals are not done with scare tactics, the guitar is clean, the drums punchy and the all important double bass has a woody resonance with audible notes. No mean feat considering the speed it’s being slapped at. No More Panic is the best album from Russia’s Stressor to date. The songs are well crafted and melodic. Upon hearing the song 200 Bones (and prior to reading the liner notes) I thought it was a cover of some catchy pop song that they stuck their psycho seal on but Google came back with nothing. This small fact is in itself testament to their song writing and arrangement skills. The production and mastering on the album is perfect for bringing out that “side of leg slapping” (the quiffed up version of long-haired aficionados air guitar) psychobilly beat. I absolutely love this album and it has immediately rose to the ranks of my go-to album for the aural pleasure of people wanting to know what this genre sounds like. It’s an oasis in a desert of psychobilly mediocrity.

The O’Prez 2014

 

Stressor Official