As shop-windows to display your wares go, Oliver Ackermann struck gold with A Place To Bury Strangers.
Ackermann makes a good living selling expensive guitar pedals to superstar rock acts, and his band allows him to showcase just what he can do with those pedal effects.
The Brooklyn band’s fourth album follows roughly the same template as its predecessors, with the collective intensity nudging each track towards new heights.
There are some different shapes in the wash for sure – the visceral, noisy, hooky Love High and Straight are bookends which signpost possible future routes for APTBS – but the meat of the album remains the blistering guitar whiteouts where Ackermann goes for broke.
The question is if they’re content to stick with this diet.
