A Place To Bury Strangers – Rare & Deadly – Album Review
by Killian Laher

A Place To Bury Strangers have been on the go for 20 years or so, and this is a rarities, B-sides, etc. collection with a difference: each format (CD, vinyl, cassette and digital) contains a different tracklisting, which is as headmelting as some of the music contained here!   The digital version opens with the pounding Song For Girl From Macedonia, a fairly representative APTBS song that could have featured on any of their albums.

On the Wire clangs about and threatens to explode for five minutes or so, while Crash, and later Everyone’s the Same, leap out of the speakers with a seriously harsh sound, sounding rough as rusty barbed wire and barely listenable.  Other tracks sit somewhere in the middle – Dead Inside lurches in and out of noise, while Energy lives up to its title by kicking some serious ass, pounding its way along a solid bassline before a descent into screeching feedback.

They also do some fairly gothy tunes like Out of Place, Heartless and Losing Time, which nod heavily to the Sisters of Mercy, albeit sounding like they were recorded in the bottom of a well.  The collection finishes with Where Are We Now which, as well as being dark and moody, is also the most understated thing here.

As these things often are, very much a mixed bag, but fans of the band will definitely want it, in whatever format you desire!

Everyone’s the Same