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Apr 11, 2018 Issue #63 - Courtney Barnett By Stephen Wyatt

At 3:32 of Pinned‘s anthemic opening track, “Never Coming Back,” a single guitar tone with the deceptive appearance of an army decimating any enemy within its radius of destruction ties A Place to Bury Strangers’ past to its present. After four studio albums and numerous EPs, Pinned showcases A Place to Bury Strangers’ latest, and most solid, iteration of a band that specializes in creating sonics that cut through the bone and straight to the marrow, sounding timely, relevant, and groundbreaking.

Since the A Place to Bury Strangers released their brilliant self-titled debut album in 2007, and at the same time opened for the legacy industrial act Nine Inch Nails, the promise of greatness loomed large for the band, However, multiple line up changes interrupted the band’s path toward sustained success. Undeterred by the absence of consistency, founding guitarist/singer Oliver Ackermann marched forward, constructing one solid album after the next.

The addition of bassist Dion Lunadon provided A Place to Bury Strangers with the stability it required to endure, and he crafted a few of the band’s tracks from their previous effort, 2015’s Transfixation. One last measure needed to be taken, as drummer Lia Simone Braswell not only complements the solid rhythm section, but her voice pierces through Ackerman’s thinly veiled delivery, adding melodicism to the band’s abrasive assault on the senses. The best example of their move away from erecting impenetrable walls of sound to more refined songwriting takes place on “Was It Electric,” a romantic ode to an experience that exists in memory only.

The risks A Place to Bury Strangers take pay off more often than the stranger, near-failed experiments found on “Execution” and “Attitude.” “I Know I’ve Done Bad Things” and “Keep Moving On” set the precedent—and distinct hope—for a band that no longer needs to look backward to solidify their legacy within the noise rock canon. (www.aplacetoburystrangers.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10