Review: A Place To Bury Strangers, 'Worship'
by Mike Contreras
Worship
Dead Oceans
It has been three years since the release of a full length album by "The loudest band in New York," A Place To Bury Strangers, and Worship continues their dark and noisy approach to songwriting. It would be too easy and lazy for any music critic to write the band off as another Jesus and Mary Chain knock-off without mentioning the great atmospheric feedback and sonic wall of stomp box glory that drenches each track on the album.
Lead singer and guitarist, Oliver Ackermann, owns and builds his own effects through his Brooklyn based pedal company, Death By Audio. Worship could very well be a magnificent demonstration of his latest pedal engineering.
The opening song "Alone" starts with a driving mid-tempo rhythm pulse that doesn't let up through the album. Ackermann's guitar tones sound every bit of some heavy metallic machinery being scraped across a concrete warehouse floor with nods to guitar heroes, William Reid and Kevin Shields.
The guitar feedback at the ending of "You Are The One" sounds like a futuristic hungover robot puking gear oil as a result of a night of sentient partying. "Mind Control" and title track showcase the album's overdriven bass line tones, while "Fear" presents a dynamic tension that creeps into a cacophonous chorus.
"Dissolved" gives us a chance to breathe with its slower tempo and orchestrated wall of feedback, but increases the pace with industrial rage in songs like "Why I Can't Cry Anymore" and "Revenge."
"And I'm Up" takes a turn for more pop guitar chord structures while retaining the band's noisy manifesto. "Slide" begs to be remixed by DJs, while the album closer "Leaving Tomorrow" speeds up to a ferocious and unforgiving pace.
Although Ackermann's vocals channel Jim Reid circa Psychocandy, the music presented on Worship paints a darker landscape that leans towards a goth industrial sound, rather than the catchy noise pop choruses associated with the earlier work of the Reid Brothers. For a third album release, Worship proves that A Place To Bury Strangers are not letting down their guard and getting soft anytime soon.
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