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A Place To Bury Strangers formed in the early 2000s, but it wasn’t until later in the decade that the group would gain significant traction. Following the release of their self-titled debut in 2007 and follow-up Exploding Head in 2009, it seemed like the band was regularly mentioned amongst shoegaze and post punk listeners and they had both the hooks and the sheer wall of sound to warrant the notoriety. Over the years A Place To Bury Strangers has gone through plenty of changes, with founder Oliver Ackermann often being joined by a slightly different cast of supporting musicians from one album to the next. This has also come through in their style on each release, as some have re-emphasized the noise while others went for a more polished approach. In recent years Ackermann has been joined by Sandra and John Fedowitz and the sound has pivoted back towards a lot more noise with hooks buried underneath. Synthesizer follows 2022’s See Through You and finds a natural balance between the abrasive and softer sides of the band’s songwriting, making for a varied and intriguing listen.
Whether intentional or not, it’s been interesting to see how A Place To Bury Strangers’ material followed a similar trajectory as one of their influences The Jesus and Mary Chain. Like that group, their earlier albums focused on being as noisy and loud as possible with dense layers of instrumentation and a slew of different effects, while later material stripped things back in favor of a more polished sound. See Through You marked a noticeable shift back towards the noise level and rawness of those early releases, and Synthesizer makes it clear on opener “Disgust” this is still the case. Upon pressing play you’re met with an extremely loud and noisy guitar line and a driving bass line, and the guitar work sounds like a harmonica that’s been pitch shifted and run through a dozen different effects. It’s an effective opener that falls somewhere between post punk, punk, and noise rock and the way the layers of sound ebb and flow kept me captivated. Rather than just keeping the volume at max the entire time, Ackermann and company have opted to move between these noisy outbursts and softer moments that bring in a bit more of the melodic and pop side. “Bad Idea” is a perfect example of the latter, as it moves at a brisker pace and is much more subdued in terms of volume but there are still a lot of interesting effects and sounds coming from the guitars. I like the way these types of tracks create a hazier, dreamlike atmosphere that has small details that jump out upon repeat listens, and they sit well next to much denser and aggressive songs like “Have You Ever Been In Love”. A Place To Bury Strangers packs a good amount of variety into Synthesizer, as “Fear of Transformation” is more electronically oriented, “Plastic Future” goes full-on into drearier post punk, and “Join the Crowd” almost has a krautrock feel to its repeated rhythms and droning guitar. It isn’t all perfect, as I’m not a fan of the way the guitar sticks out in an awkward fashion on “Don’t Be Sorry” and “It’s Too Much”, plus closing track “Comfort Never Comes” is a bit overstretched. But the bulk of Synthesizer manages to stick with you and has some peaks up there with the band’s best.
Despite the volume and density of the instrumentation, Oliver Ackermann’s singing continues to soar and remains a prominent piece of A Place To Bury Strangers’ music. Where other shoegaze and noise rock/pop adjacent bands sometimes bury their vocals to the point they barely break free of the distortion, that’s not the case here and the reverb drenched singing is easy to make out and focus on. Ackermann shakes things up from song to song, as “Disgust” is a bit more airier and detached, while tracks like “Fear of Transformation” head into some lower ranges and have a slight gothic tone. There are also a few sections where the vocals purposefully blend in with the layers of sound, as “Bad Idea” is effective in the way it seems to just swallow them up by the end. “Have You Ever Been In Love” also has some singing/yelling at the beginning that I believe is coming from Sandra Fedowitz, and it injects some additional variety into the later moments of Synthesizer.
Listening to Synthesizer, you can feel the natural chemistry that this latest incarnation of A Place To Bury Strangers has and the way they fuse in sheer volume and noise with melodic hooks stands out. There are a few quirks that keep it from being my favorite in the band’s discography, but it’s still an effort that has plenty to give listeners and small details to draw them back after the first few times through. Plus, the vinyl cover has schematics for a custom synthesizer with parts available from Ackermann’s Death By Audio, which is a neat way to cross-promote. Synthesizer is available from Dedstrange.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg