A Place to Bury Strangers
Transfixiation
Over the years, A Place to Bury Strangers--Oliver Ackermann's musical side-project to his full-time guitar pedal business, Death By Audio--have slowly and incrementally changed their sound from sludge-noise to Jesus & Mary Chain cover band. Yes, obviously the noise is still there, and Transfixiation shows how they are still the best at creating it. But while the first half of APTBS's fourth full-length serves more as a sampler of their previous career points ("Love High" resembles their brilliant self-titled debut; "Deeper" is a mopey cover from something on their second LP, Exploding Head; "Straight" is a clearly a B-side off their fantastic EP, Onwards to the Wall; and "Supermaster," the album opener, could easily be a bonus-track from Worship), the second half, starting with the bouncy single "We've Come So Far," is pure brilliance. The elevation of bassist Dion Lunadon to co-songwriting duty since Onwards to the Wall was a brilliant move that clearly is paying it's dividends. Songs highlighting his vocals, like "I'm So Clean" and "I Will Die," are standouts on an album full of the more experimental sounds that Ackermann is usually responsible for. Not to say the experimentation is unnecessary, or even unwanted, but without Lunadon's contributions, Transfixiation could easily have been less My Bloody Valentine, more Cromagnon. That said, Transfixiation is a validating (if not a little obvious) next step in APTBS's career, but with Death By Audio (the venue) being...well...dead, we can only hope they continue to sludge ever onward to that mythical apex where noise and harmony are one and the same.
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