A Place to Bury Strangers, “Transfixiation”

If rock and roll teeters on cultural irrelevance in this young century, it is surely due to being stripped of an elemental fear. Whether the genre is recoverable is debatable, but A Place to Bury Strangers refuses to abandon the expedition.
Reviews
A Place to Bury Strangers, “Transfixiation”

If rock and roll teeters on cultural irrelevance in this young century, it is surely due to being stripped of an elemental fear. Whether the genre is recoverable is debatable, but A Place to Bury Strangers refuses to abandon the expedition.

Words: Ken Scrudato

February 18, 2015

2015. A Place to Bury Strangers, “Transfixiation

A Place To Bury Strangers - TransfixiationA Place to Bury Strangers
Transfixiation
DEAD OCEANS
7/10

If rock and roll teeters on cultural irrelevance in this young century, it is surely due to being stripped of an elemental fear. Whether the genre is recoverable is debatable, but A Place to Bury Strangers refuses to abandon the expedition. On Transfixiation, the New York experimental rock band’s fourth full-length, Oliver Ackermann convincingly threatens, “If you fuck with me, you’re gonna burn.” And there’s every reason to take said threat seriously, as bass and drums rattle throughout like the emptying of an M16 and guitars are made to replicate the aural emissions of a fleet of destroyers being rammed through a machine lathe. When Ackermann chants “You wanna fill the void,” it comes off like a manifesto, and as the album closes with the ungodly sonic horrors of “I Will Die,” it sounds like a prophesied epitaph. Oh what fun it is…