Country : United States Label : Dedstrange Genres and styles : Experimental / Contemporary / Noise / Post-Punk / Psychedelia Year : 2022

A Place to Bury Strangers – See Through You

· by Stephan Boissonneault

I still remember the day I became infatuated with the New York noise-punk group, A Place to Bury Strangers. A friend of mine and I were on a road trip while the song “Worship” started shaking and ripping apart the dashboard of his car. At this time I was on a huge doom metal kick with bands like Electric Wizard, Uncle Acid & the Dead Beats, Pentagram, etc., but I was growing tired of the recurrent themes of witches, cults, goblins, and ghouls. I wanted something heavy to get ‘lost in the void’ so to speak—something I could almost consciously dissociate to.

A Place to Bury Strangers (APTBS) had a sound soaked in distorted reverb that stopped me dead in my tracks. “Worship” sounded heavier and more sinister than any doom metal I had heard at the time, with the same punk tenacity of something by The Germs.

Flashforward a decade or so later and APTBS has just dropped See Through You, their sixth LP that follows up the Hologram EP from last year. Helmed by the gear wizard, Oliver Ackermann, [we interviewed him here] who plays triple duty as the singer, multi-instrumentalist (guitar, synths, noise box,) See Through You, focuses much more on melodic hooks than previous APTBS releases.

There are still walls of sound, but the vocals hooks on songs like “So Low,” or the madness of “Anyone But You” seem more thought out than just straight red-dialed noise of earlier releases. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for that red-dialed noise. I don’t listen to APTBS for the lyrical content, but with this new release, perhaps I should start. I mean, “Broken” is the most indie rock they’ve ever sounded.

It seems Ackermann truly trusts his new lineup of husband and wife John and Sandra Fedowitz (who played bass and drums.) In fact, John and Sandra have their own noisy project, Ceremony East Coast, a project Ackermann has always been a fan of. He and John were also both in the ‘90s shoegaze band Skywave together. Basically, the new lineup works and it pushes the APTBS sound further into the cosmic void. 

And there’s plenty of sound annihilation, like on “I Disappear (When You’re Near)” which can catch you off guard if you have your volume cranked (I should have known better.) Ackermann is a guy who loves things that sound broken—(speakers, guitars (his are usually glued-together, Frankensteined, monstrosities only for him), pedals, cymbals, you name it—and push the boundaries of contemporary sound. See Through You is a great release for anyone who wants to dip their toes in the noise rock/post-punk, whatever you want to call it genre, but will also harken back to the glory days of Worship for die-hard fans.

Latest 360 Content

Gus Englehorn – One Eyed Jack Trilogy

Gus Englehorn – One Eyed Jack Trilogy

Festival du Monde Arabe 2024 | Creation of an opera about Sainte-Marine the Disguised, the 5th-century woman who lived as a monk

Festival du Monde Arabe 2024 | Creation of an opera about Sainte-Marine the Disguised, the 5th-century woman who lived as a monk

OSM | Sublime Sibelius !

OSM | Sublime Sibelius !

PHI Centre | Lia Kuri Talks and Sings about Mother, Mother Earth… Motherland

PHI Centre | Lia Kuri Talks and Sings about Mother, Mother Earth… Motherland

We Are Wolves | They’re Older, but… They’re Still Wolves!

We Are Wolves | They’re Older, but… They’re Still Wolves!

Malasartes | Cultural Blending According to Noubi

Malasartes | Cultural Blending According to Noubi

Malasartes | Kleyn Kabaret or how to revive and update Yiddish through music

Malasartes | Kleyn Kabaret or how to revive and update Yiddish through music

Annie Saumier talks about the OSM 2024 Competition

Annie Saumier talks about the OSM 2024 Competition

Pinnacle of Modern Choral Music at the Azrieli Music Prizes

Pinnacle of Modern Choral Music at the Azrieli Music Prizes

OSL | Antoine Bareil Plays Mendelssohn’s Famous Violin Concerto

OSL | Antoine Bareil Plays Mendelssohn’s Famous Violin Concerto

Arab World Festival of Montreal | Narcy and Omar Offendum: Two Decades of Friendship in Artistry

Arab World Festival of Montreal | Narcy and Omar Offendum: Two Decades of Friendship in Artistry

Örjan Sandred and the Stenhammar Quartet Reinvent Live Electronics

Örjan Sandred and the Stenhammar Quartet Reinvent Live Electronics

Wolfgang Rihm – Jakob Lenz

Wolfgang Rihm – Jakob Lenz

James Ehnes/Orchestre philharmonique de Bergen, dir.: Edward Gardner – Sibelius : Violin Concerto, Serenades, Humoresques

James Ehnes/Orchestre philharmonique de Bergen, dir.: Edward Gardner – Sibelius : Violin Concerto, Serenades, Humoresques

India Gailey – Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth

India Gailey – Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth

Trio Fibonacci – Max Richter Remixed

Trio Fibonacci – Max Richter Remixed

Collectif9 – Rituæls

Collectif9 – Rituæls

Diana Panton – Soft Winds and Roses

Diana Panton – Soft Winds and Roses

Zouz in These Jours de cendres

Zouz in These Jours de cendres

Julian Gutierrez Vinardell – De Ti Lo Quiero Todo

Julian Gutierrez Vinardell – De Ti Lo Quiero Todo

Violons du Roy | Richness and Vocal Splendor of the Divine Handel

Violons du Roy | Richness and Vocal Splendor of the Divine Handel

Le Vivier | Flashback: Immersive Exploration of the Narcissus Myth for Violin and Electronics

Le Vivier | Flashback: Immersive Exploration of the Narcissus Myth for Violin and Electronics

Subscribe to our newsletter