When I saw that the eighth full-length release for New York’s strobing noise punks, A Place To Bury Strangers (APTBS), was going to be a collection of B-sides, demos, and recovered sonic experiments, I was pretty ecstatic. I immediately pictured hearing an unreleased track from the Worship (still my fav album) era. This is, however, a collection of tracks that lead vocalist and guitar wizard, Oliver Ackermann, has recovered from 2015 to 2025, and Worship came out in 2012.
So it stretches from 2015’s Transfixiation to last year’s Synthesizer. After a few listens, I find it kind of a mixed bag. The opener, “Song For Girl From Macedonia” bangs and is mixed super well, while “Crash” is just sonic violence, impossible to parse out. I guess it’s a demo, but the levels are all over the place; this absolutely in-the-red blown-out vibe works super well live, but on record, it’s not my favourite. “Everyone’s the Same” feels very much like a late-night demo with no real chorus or verse. Coulda been cooked a bit more.
“Energy” is another super loud one, but the mix makes it bearable on expensive headphones. The bass riff is also super catchy, very The KVB. Ackermann’s vocals also cut through the noise liek a knife ready to gut you. “Heartless” feels like APTBS going for The Cure’s Disintegration, and I’m there for it. Paul Jacobs, the Montreal psych folk stooge, is also on drums, which feels random, but makes sense at the same time. “Acid Rain” is very German club bloodrave, and that’s the only way I can describe it. “Where Are We Now,” the reverb-drenched closer, might be the least violent track I’ve heard from APTBS in over a decade. So yeah, as you can see, I’m kind of all over the place with Rare and Deadly, and it is too.
