Posted on April 22, 2022 by Heather Adams

Album Review: See Through You – A Place To Bury Strangers

by Charles Lull, Albright College

Album Review: See Through You – A Place To Bury Strangers

On See Through You, post-punk and noise reign supreme in the best ways possible.

The American outfit known as A Place To Bury Strangers haven’t shown their true colors as a noisy post-punk band on their last few records, but swing for the fences on this recent release. The opening track slowly gets the listeners into the record’s sound, nothing explosive early on but building to something more significant. Growing tension on this record is wonderfully done; sometimes, the band will intentionally play very distorted or sour notes to get the listener to wonder what the band is doing. This trend continues onto the following two tracks, taking inspiration from 80s post-punk bands.

When the record gets to So Low, the intensity and aggression are turned up ten-fold. The mix is denser, the riffs are heavier, and the singer sounds more despondent and apathetic. The sound only gets heavier and darker from this moment on in the record. Tracks like Anyone But You, Hold on Tight, My Head is Bleeding, and I Disappear are thick and invigorating. Especially on Anyone But You, where the levels sometimes clip and create a distorted soundscape. The atmosphere of this record is like walking down a dark alley right after a night partying in a gothic nightclub, and I love it.

This is not to say that So Low onwards is completely painted in the bleakest colors. Moments on the closer bring back some more relaxing playing with cleanly picked guitars and drum machines. While I wish the ending song was the darkest and noisiest on the record, it also makes for a great stopping point. On Broken and I Don’t Know How You Do It, the mix is quieter than most on the record, bringing peacefulness to the record that we haven’t heard since the beginning.

For fans of modern post-punk, or for anyone interested in getting into the noise genre, See Through You makes for an easy recommendation.

Rating: 9/10

Recommended Tracks: So Low, Dragged in a Hole, I Disappear, Anyone But You, My Head is Bleeding, Broken, Hold on Tight, I Don’t Know How You Do It.

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