This album starts off with “Never Coming Back”, and I certainly do love just how intense, low-key and dark this track is. It’s just so damn dreary and grim. But am I the only one who wishes they took this just so much further than they did. This could easily be so much noisier and truly chaotic. Like, there’s certainly nothing wrong with this tune, it’s a determined and apocalyptic Post Punk tune. Even Oliver Ackermann’s vocals just sound so dreary and burnt out, in the best way. This one is well over 5-minutes long, but it really gives this track room to breath and gets into some pretty intense rhythms. This absolutely works, and it gets pretty insane in the second half. Now, if A Place To Bury Strangers can stay at this level and just get creative and more Noisy and wild THAN we can talk. But “Execution” is up next, and excuse my French, but what the fuck is this? Yea there may be some intense beats here and there. But I can’t believe that A Place To Bury Strangers right now are actually sounding even more unfocused than usual. The instrumentals here aren’t edgy or weird, they’re just unfocused and genuinely annoying. “Execution” aims to be tense, and there certainly are some OK moments. But none of this is anywhere near the explosive Post Punk sound they once mastered. There’s a retro sheen to everything on this album, which I guess isn’t the worst thing going on here. Now, I do like the very grim atmosphere on “There’s Only One Of Us”. The manic performances are on the disturbing side, and while the riffs are simple, they certainly work. But why the hell does Oliver sound like he would be doing anything else than this? Needless to say, this track is actually really hypnotizing and actually has some really cool elements to it. A Place to Bury Strangers continues to stay on my good side with “Situations Changes”, which has a really cool, mysterious and dirty sound to it. Granted, this has all been done before by everyone else in Post Punk. But A Place to Bury Strangers actually pulls this sound off quite well. It’s not noisy, wild, or anything close to it. But I'll be damned if this wasn’t some of the more intriguing material here. “Situations Changes” sounds so dangerous and incredibly dark, even sexy to some extent. And A Place to Bury Strangers does certainly play it with enough determination because some of these riffs are brilliant. Now, like I said, literally everyone and their mothers have done this sound, and A Place To Bury Strangers are literally taking riffs that bands like Joy Division wrote years ago. But if you can get around that, yea, this works.
“Too Tough To Kill” starts bringing in some legitimate funk and some wild instrumentals, and I really don’t know how to feel about it. Now, while this track isn’t exactly the worst thing I’ve heard, it’s far from the best. I do love just how hypnotic and intense this track is. But I feel like A Place to Bury Strangers have written this track dozens of times. But it also comes off like they’re totally just winging this. I commend the intensity, but where is that focused sound? “Frustrated Operator” is up next, and at this point, I’ll take a literal Joy Division ripoff. I mean, it’s nothing wild and new, but at least A Place To Bury Strangers seem like they’re at their most comfortable. In times like this, there are some slick grooves and very hypnotic vocals. But it just seems like A Place To Bury Strangers at least planned it to be this way. Unlike some of the other material here which just seems so rushed and unfocused. I love some of the reverb and some of the guitar effects. I’m going to give this one a pass and say that it works, but where the hell has the lyricism and writing gone here? The fact that there are this many grating questions is not good folks. Then we have “Look Me In The Eye”, which may be the best track here. I love how genuinely out of control this track sounds. Here, I feel like I’m right back in the hands of a band that will subject me to anything. And with A Place To Bury Strangers actually writing an entire song and not just part of one, this comes off brilliant. But for every track like that, we get “Was It Electric”, which is literally the opposite of where I want to hear A Place to Bury Strangers. The last thing I want to hear this band do is slow things down. Now, I get that here the band wants to focus on atmosphere. But that’s nowhere to be found, and this track sounds like pulling teeth from them to get an interesting performance. Oliver honestly sounds like he doesn’t give two shits about how he sounds, and it’s just so obvious that there’s a lot of truth to that. “Was It Electric” isn’t determined or noisy, it’s just plain boring.
“I Know I’ve Done Bad Things” is up next, and is it just me or does the more Electronic sound here just come off really depressing. This track isn’t noisy in a good way, it’s just obnoxious. And let me tell you if it wasn’t already obvious that Oliver had given up on A Place to Bury Strangers, just listen to his performance here. Yes, Post Punk is a genre fueled by robotic performances and tension. But this isn’t robotic. This isn’t tense. This is hilariously bad. This just sounds like a demo, with some really great elements hiding deep down. From that pulsating beat that’s trying desperately to break out, to those bluesy guitar licks, this one could have been great. But it’s borderline unlistenable at the end of the day. Thankfully, some tracks here do give me hope for the future. “Act Your Age” sounds great for a Post Punk tune. It’s a little frustrating however with it barely being 2-minutes. I want to hear more of this, as I really don’t have anything else bad to say about this. Even “Attitude” is legitimately great. This one still isn’t as long as I would like, but the attitude and the intensity are here full blast. Tracks like this make me want to love this album. It’s hypnotic, dirty, chaotic, and all around really great. But like, why can’t we get a whole album of THIS. I get that every album is going to have its ups and downs, but so many of this album is underwhelming. You know, like the finale, “Keep Moving On”. I mean, this isn’t the worst track here, but come on guys. You’re literally moving away from ripping off Joy Division and now you’re just ripping off New Order. Sure, this is an alright sound for A Place to Bury Strangers, but absolutely nothing about this is new or exciting. It’s OK at best, which I can literally say about every track here practically.
Rating: 6.9/10
Give A Listen To: “Attitude”, “Situations Changes”, “Frustrated Operator”, “Look Me In The Eye”
Genre: Post Punk / Noise Rock / Joy Division ripoffs
Overall Thoughts: I mean, this is certainly more tolerable than the last two A Place To Bury Strangers projects. There's a little bit more heavier material here, and by this point in their career they obviously know what they're doing when it comes to making gloomy Post-Punk. But ahem, why do like 9 of these 12 tracks sound like honest to God Joy Division or New Order ripoffs? And when they aren't blatantly ripping off classic acts, why does this band sound like they couldn't care less about this album? And most of all, where's that great excitement we once got with A Place To Bury Strangers?
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