A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS – ONWARDS TO THE WALL
Released 6th February 2012 (Dead Oceans)

Words: Gaz Martinez

Time for some music from overseas, and straight out of Brooklyn I’m listening to the three piece, A Place To Bury Strangers. A pleasant name indeed, but is their EP, Onwards to the Wall as pleasant to listen to?

I Lost You opens up the record, it’s loud and overbearing, catches the ears attention the way an introductory song should do, the second track, So Far Away holds you in place and the title track Onwards to the Wall flows on and on without going very far, but this surprisingly works in favour of the song, with the consistent drums and pulsing bass, a stable platform is given for the guitars and vocals to layer themselves over and it doesn’t feel as if the song is stagnating at any point.

This band carries a heavy 80’s goth vibe in the music, The Cure, Billy Idol call out with a big hint of The Bravery thrown into the mix as well. That said, the use of electronic noises and other experimentations put me in mind of Radiohead and OK Computer, which makes for interesting listening too.

One problem I find with this record has to be how content the band is to saturate the vocals in reverb, singer Oliver Ackermann comes across as if singing in a cave or church, for the first few songs, it sort of works, and adds to the general ambience that the band seem to be aiming for, in the latter half of this record though, you get the feeling that a sizeable portion of lyrics are lost, drowned in the sound, after a while, the sound itself starts to drone, by the time Onwards to the Wall is over, you feel almost cathartic at the experience, not a bad listen, just a tad over long .