REVIEW: A Place To Bury Strangers - Rare & Deadly

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS have long been highly influential figures in modern shoegaze. It seems that every new acclaimed band appearing in the genre these days are taking more cues from post-hardcore and noise rock outfits than the dreaminess of SLOWDIVE, for example. Of course, a lot of this can be traced back to the first group most people think of when they hear “shoegaze”, that being MY BLOODY VALENTINE, but A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS almost feel like spiritual successors in that sense, with their aptly-titled 2009 record Exploding Head combining fuzzy bass, ethereal vocals, as well as a sensible helping of sheer loudness, to create a record that seems to just work. Their frontman Oliver Ackermann also runs a guitar pedal company called Death By Audio, so he also takes after MBV’s Kevin Shields with his clear passion for guitar effects and experimenting with making as much noise as possible.

This is clear all over the band’s new release, Rare and Deadly, which is a sort-of-compilation, sort-of-not. The pitch is that each format it’s being released on has a different tracklist, so for example some songs that exist on the CD version aren’t on the vinyl version, and vice versa. The idea being that it’s a sort of scattered snapshot of the way these different songs were formed from 2015-2025 - “less a compilation and more a documentary”. We could talk all day about how we feel about this from a listener’s perspective, but for all intents and purposes this review is solely covering the digital version.

So to begin with we’ll talk about the two most noticeable constants on each tracklist, the opener and closer. Song For Girl From Macedonia is exactly the kind of thing anyone who enjoys the band at all could enjoy, which isn’t a bad thing at all. There’s a constant driving rhythm of the snare every two beats for the whole song, never once faltering, and the almost DEERHUNTER-esque vocals and lyrics that feel like a heavier version of a song from something like Weird Era Continued. Of course, the guitars end up absolutely devouring the song at the end, almost like a tidal wave, before abruptly cutting out. It’s a great showcase of the band’s talents from the get-go.

Meanwhile, the significantly more sombre Where Are We Now is more reminiscent of the 2010s Calgary post-punk scene, with maybe the most minimal approach to songwriting on the whole album. It’s a fine closer, and it makes sense to bookend the album with both of songs, but Where Are We Now, at least on the digital version, is in stark opposition to the previous song, Acid Rain. Recorded in 2020, this song was previously released on the Talk - Action = Zero compilation benefitting Black Lives Matter. Heavily influenced by industrial music with its pounding electronic drums, it’s the closest thing on here to a danceable song. The intro also features recordings from a George Floyd protest which best highlights the choice to rerelease it now in this way, as a sort of snapshot of the band at various intervals during the past ten years.

However, the standout moments here are the noisier tracks, like the third track, Crash. While maybe a bit of a jumpscare compared to the first two tracks considering the abrupt opening effectively being pure noise, it’s such a thrill ride from start to finish. Whether it’s because of poor recording quality, malfunctioning pedals or an intentional attempt to just be really loud, it just comes together in a way that makes it so addictive to come back to. When people call a band “noise merchants”, this is what you expect to hear.

While it would be easy to say that this is one for the fans, we think that anyone could jump into this record and get some level of enjoyment out of it. The range of influences and styles from a band that have honed their craft over twenty or so years and refuse to be held down by any one particular style is just a joy to listen to. It does lead to it feeling somewhat disjointed, which is very much by design, and there are ups and downs, but those ups are quite unbelievable.

Score: 7/10

Rare & Deadly will be released on April 4th 2026 via Dedstrange.

Words: Noise Leonard

Photos: A Place To Bury Strangers