A Place To Bury Strangers release Onwards To The Wall, their debut EP on Dead Oceans February 6 on CD/12″/Digital formats. The EP contains five brand new, pummelling tracks.

Lead song  ”So Far Away” takes all the pure pop perfection of The Box Tops’ “The Letter” and shoots it through with a barely-harnessed dark energy and snarling propulsion.

Watch “So Far Away” video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ-QY_rkJLI

The track can also be downloaded for free here:

http://www.scjag.com/mp3/do/sofaraway.mp3

Onwards To The Wall packs every bit of the searing sonic maelstrom listeners have come to expect from APTBS. Produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by APTBS themselves, this is the sound of a band in control of making out-of-control music. Now joined by bassist Dion Lunadon, formerly of The D4, lead singer and guitarist Oliver Ackerman has found a crucial companion in pulling timeless melodies from their jet engine textures. The adroit songcraft that’s always been there is brought to the fore, with familiar pop hooks repurposed for maximum carnage. A handful of contemporary bands are currently exploring the new limits of loud. Here, APTBS proves that they have not only been leading that charge, but that they are also evolving and maturing on those front lines.

Onwards To The Wall is a fresh, complete artistic statement from APTBS. It’s a new chapter, a prelude for what awaits us on the horizon. It is a taste of greatness to come.

A Place to Bury Strangers have announced they will bring their senses-stunning live show back to the UK. Here are full dates:

May 8th – London, Cargo

May 9th – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds

May 10th – Manchester, Sound Control

May 11th – Glasgow, King Tuts

May 12th – Newcastle, Cluny

May 13th – Leeds, Cockpit

http://www.aplacetoburystrangers.com/

https://www.facebook.com/aplacetoburystrangers

https://twitter.com/APTBS

Four friends gave birth to HOLY in the hot summer of 2011 in Milano, Italy. Whilst most people were hanging out in shorts and sunglasses, planning their holiday and heading to the seaside, HOLY were locked inside a hot, sweaty rehearsal room, writing songs.

It only took a few days to give birth to a fistful of songs, 8 to be exact. Soon after, a demo was recorded in the same hot, sweaty rehearsal room, which instead of being a demo became HOLY’s debut release.

8 furious songs in 11 minutes, comprising their self-titled debut EP, is to be to be released on 12” vinyl though Italian DIY label Hell, Yes! – the physical release date has now changed to February 20^th 2012.

The band have also uploaded a new track from the EP. Download ‘Monday’ for free here:

Longtime active in the Italian hardcore/punk scene, both organizing and playing shows with different bands, HOLY focused all their thoughts on creating angry, fast music that could talk about political issues and life choices. Reflecting on a bleak vision of big ideals and how cynical reality can sometimes be. The result is a mix between old-school hardcore, 80′s punk and power-violence.

They will be playing their first ever UK shows very soon. Watch this space!

EP tracklist:
1.            The Wrong Side
2.            Lifelong
3.            Restless
4.            Blame Me
5.            Dead Can Dance
6.            Monday
7.            Cheap Drugs
8.            Asleep

You can also watch the video for the EP’s opening track, ‘The Wrong Side’ here: http://vimeo.com/30988810

Words: Gaz Martinez

Having known of the progenitor to Flashheart, 13 Riots, I was very eager to get my headphones in and see what this EP has to offer, how it differs from their earlier work, and how it demonstrates their evolution as musicians. At first I’m presented with I’ve Got a Plan, a subtle and creepy start leads into what would have been a royally bombastic chorus, if this track wasn’t an instrumental, but the set up into the next song is effective. Upon hearing Mad Swallows one can tell that this EP is largely if not wholly self-produced, tracks like Claws shows a particularly low-fi sound on the guitars, while it would have been perhaps better for Flashheart to have aimed for a more refined guitar tone, the heavy sections do well enough as they are and remind me of Blur’s Song 2.

Like many self-produced efforts, Mothra sometimes falls into the same pitfalls such as occasionally very average mixing, the vocals could do with being louder in general while the harmonisations are sometimes mixed too far apart from each other to achieve that choral effect they seemed to be striving for.

This is not to say that this EP is completely flawed, strong songwriting is plentiful, My (Less Than) Perfect Week, is a strong demonstration of the band’s collective ability, changing pitch, tempo and maybe even genre with every new passage. With the slight addition of synths, it also seems to reflect their final departure from their previous sound as 13 Riots. And with the strangely discordant piano outro, it is definitely a decent song to end Mothra on.

For a first attempt, this self-produced piece of work should be commended, but I feel that the boys in Flashheart can make a greater impact and capture the attention of more people and potentially labels by investing in a professional record producer.

Words: Gaz Martinez

The Hiding Place’s EP2 only has three songs, so spends little time with fancy intros like some bands, instead, a quick drum fill and we’re straight into Snaketown. An energetic and bouncy song sure to get crowds moving at shows, yet strangely ends on a calm yet eerie note. Lyrically, despite three songs, there are some very nice lines that speak to the heart, personal favourites including “I only saved you from this, so I could play the martyr.”

Good songwriting abilities aside, one main concern for me on this EP is the actual guitar sound, while the clean sections, such as the intro to Popular Myths, sound wonderful, the loud, bombastic choruses (as well as the heavy outro to Pay No Attention) are spoiled by the same thin distortion that flows throughout this EP, while it serves the verses and instrumental sections adequately, they fail to carry the choruses with the grandness that they deserve.

One hopes that when an album is inevitably dropped, this issue is rectified as each song is solid in its own right, and Dominic Webbers range is wide, even if he sounds a little strained on Pay No Attention’s last section. It would have been nicer if the vocals were mixed a little higher as well in verses and such, it feels like Webber has to fight the guitars and drums just to be audible.

Overall a good demonstration of these guys potential ultimately marred by what I feel is a weak production. Same songs with a different person behind the mixing desk, and you have a solid listening experience.

Words: Gaz Martinez

The style that Song of Return seem to aim for never seems to want to stand out, neither the vocals, drums, guitars or bass do anything snazzy that would suggest that any one in. The title track constantly progresses and changes, but never immediately or erratically, giving it a hypnotic quality, it’s a tune to close your eyes and let it take you wherever you want to go. While Entwined’s distorted bass line pulses you right through to the, what should be bombastic, yet strangely sublime chorus, then delivers you into a plentiful bridge of electronic sounds and beats.

Trajectory carries the same sort of spacey quality that Muse and Pink Floyd seem to have crafted for themselves, but stripped of all the unnecessary notions of grandeur, which gives each song on this EP a strong sense of ambience, something that many artists find their music lacking. While it doesn’t provide the sense of vibrancy that people need to be jumping up and down at concerts that some people would like to see, it offers the music the opportunity to sink in and be absorbed by one’s senses. Good stuff!