A Place To Bury Strangers: Worship

A Place To Bury Strangers
Worship
Dead Oceans [2012]









 Fire Note Says: Worship just scrapes the surface of what A Place To Bury Strangers are capable of releasing!

Album Review:
I can guarantee that you will not find many albums out there today that sound like Worship, the new long player from Brooklyn's A Place To Bury Strangers. Following their sonically destructive EP back in February, Worship finds the band still expanding their sound with continuing walls of hazy fuzz and thumping bass lines which at times will make your speakers shimmy.

All of Worship has this in your face quality about it that can both be sinister and refreshing all in the same line. Right from the opening pound of the drum machine on first track "Alone" you just know that APTBS is setting the stage as this track is a quick 2:29 but rolls over you like a long wave of sound that fills any space that you are in.

These loud tracks take their place on Worship but where the band really shines are on songs like the building "You Are The One" which has a dark vibe right from the beginning as vocalist Oliver Ackermann increases his intensity right with the songs increasing pace. The track then completely spirals out of control with merging sounds that really sound like a poltergeist in a car crash! Trust me it is a cool sound. On another building, almost ballad type song called "Dissolved", there is a floating shoegaze type of intro that teeter totters in and out with the vocals until it hits a little past midpoint when it completely shifts gears into this upbeat new wave type of strumming guitar with matching vocals that is almost out of the Cure playbook. This track is totally surprising and a bright spot for APTBS showing that they are not a one trick show.

Stylistic moments show up throughout Worship and give the record its uniqueness but I would have liked to have had even more of these quick shifting transitions. There is still plenty of walls of sound that will blow your head off if turned up loud and for fans that is also a good thing but Worship suffers a little compared to their EP as its 45 minute running time may be too much without enough diversity in the music that the band seems to be shifting towards. If Worship is more of a transition record then I would say watch out for what A Place To Bury Strangers do next because they are onto something here and even though the album should please fans, as it brings the noise, the bands new found blending of classic new wave just possibly could blow everyone away next time we hear from them!

Key Tracks: "You Are The One", "Dissolved", "And I'm Up"

Bands With Similar Fire:
Ministry
Type O Negative
The Cure

A Place To Bury Strangers: Onwards To The Wall [EP] [Fire Note Review 2/6/12]
A Place To Bury Strangers: Exploding Head [Fire Note Review 10/2/09]

A Place To Bury Strangers Website
A Place To Bury Strangers Facebook
Dead Oceans

-Reviewed by Christopher Anthony