New from Dedstrange:
A Place To Bury Strangers Release Split Single w/ The Mall
"Make Me Feel Anything" / "I Need"
Listen To “Make Me Feel Anything / I Need” HERE
Pre-Order Split 7”s HERE
Brace yourself for a relentless sonic assault as A Place to Bury Strangers and St. Louis synth-punk force The Mall unleash a new split 7” on Dedstrange, out digitally on May 6 and out physically June 20. APTBS brings “Make Me Feel Anything”, a chaotic whirlwind of distortion, feedback, and raw emotion. On the flip side, The Mall drops “I Need”, a driving, synth-drenched blast of urgent, dystopian punk. Pressed on classic black vinyl, this is a must-have for those who crave new unfiltered, high-voltage energy.
A Place To Bury Strangers are releasing two split 7” ahead of their Upcoming Synthesizer US Tour featuring their support bands The Serfs and The Mall. 500 Limited Edition Black Vinyl.
Pre-Order Vinyl here:
APTBS 2025 SYNTHESIZER TOUR
2025 Synthesizer North American Tour
May 14 - Higher Ground - South Burlington, VT
May 15 - Bar Le Ritz PDB - Montreal, Canada
May 16 - Lee's Palace - Toronto, Canada
May 17 - The Magic Bag - Ferndale, MI
May 18 - Grog Shop - Cleveland, OH
May 19 - Northside Tavern- Cincinnati, OH
May 20 - Ace of Cups - Columbus, OH
May 21 - Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL
May 22 - Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL
May 23 - Headliners Music Hall - Louisville, KY
May 24 - The Blue Room - Nashville, TN
May 24 - The Pilot LIght - Knoxville, TN
May 27 - Richmond Music Hall - Richmond, VA
May 28 - Ottobar - Baltimore, MD
May 29 - Ukrainian American Citizens' Association (Ukie Club on Franklin) - Philadelphia, PA
May 30 - ROCKS OFF - New York, NY
Album Reviews of Synthesizer
The mean streak of talent that has distinguished A Place to Bury Strangers continues unabated. Vicious and vivid, they continue to dominate the loudest corner of the music world, reminding us why we fell in love with rock music.
"Fusing elements of noise rock, electronic dark wave, and even goth-tinged post punk, A Place to Bury Strangers have created a record that covers all bases. Whether that be the full throttle, sonic assault of opener 'Disgust,' similarly sculpted aural attack that’s 'Bad Idea,' pulsating throb of 'Have You Ever Been In Love,' or extra-sensory collision course of 'Fear of Transformation,' which combines the whole lot, Synthesizer proves to be another worthy addition to the band’s canon of sonic expeditions." - Under The Radar
"Ackermann’s mission—to defend his beloved gear that supplements creativity instead of supplanting it—gives shape and purpose to the album. For a notoriously loud band, A Place to Bury Strangers sound clear-headed on Synthesizer." - Paste
"When [Ackermann] unleashes [his guitar], it’s a white-hot geyser, shocking and powerful. The best songs on Synthesizer are studies in contrast. They save the full potential of the band’s chaos and noise for the moments when it feels most earned." - Paste
"Each song on the noise-rockers’ seventh LP is distinct in style and substance, allowing Oliver Ackermann to tap into his emotional self as if looking through a slowly twisted kaleidoscope." - FLOOD
Synthesizer delivers the noise for which A Place to Bury Strangers is known and quite a bit more.
A Place To Bury Strangers’ - currently consisting of Oliver Ackermann, John Fedowitz, and Sandra Fedowitz - nail everything from top to bottom “to a tee” on their latest album, Synthesizer. With an insistence to continually experiment, a wide-ranging combination of styles, mesmerizing vocals, louder-than-hell guitars, and mayhem-filled atmospheres, the record continues to show why APTBS remain one of the best. Album opener “Disgust” is a fantastic combination of noise rock, synth-pop, and punk. Harsh guitars screech and howl as if they are in agonizing pain. There is just something so appealing about the wild, weird, and frantic energy of this song, that continues throughout the entire record.
About Synthesizer
Synthesizer is the title of A Place to Bury Strangers' seventh album. It is also a physical entity, a synthesizer made specifically for A Place to Bury Strangers’ seventh album. A synthesizer that you too, can own (in part), if you buy the record on vinyl. “It’s pretty messed up, chaotic,” says frontman Oliver Ackermann, “But it feels really human.” In an era of making music where so little is DIY and so much is left up to AI, to never setting foot in a practice room or a home studio, making something that feels deliberately chaotic, messy, and human, is entirely the point. Synthesizer is a record that celebrates sounds that are spontaneous and natural, the kind of music that can only come from collaboration and community.
The writing sessions for Synthesizer started in 2022 in the band’s Queens studio, shortly after the release of See Through You. A Place to Bury Strangers re-formed with a new lineup, Ackermann still at the helm, now featuring friends John and Sandra Fedowitz. This new iteration of the band was inspiring for Ackermann, “It felt like a fresh new thing,” he says, “I wanted to write songs everyone was excited about playing.” Indeed, the sense of connectivity is everywhere on the record. Synthesizer very much feels like a record of reinvention, of taking a carefully honed aesthetic and sound and cracking it wide open, gutting it, reimagining it. And of course, to ever so slightly reinvent one’s sound, one must also build a new instrument, thus again the synth in question. The resulting record is one that is romantic, colorful, loud as hell.
In practice, Synthesizer is a study on walls of noise and sound. It explores what it means to twist and bend gear to its limits, to search for what Ackermann jokingly and also not jokingly calls the “most epic sound journey.” Take “Fear of Transformation,” as one such offering, a snarling gothic techno punk track that feels like getting body slammed by a wave out at sea. Here, the synthesizer has an almost alien effect. It is sweaty and strident. Ackermann views the song as a conversation with the devil, to break out whatever cage of fear that you’re inhabiting and do something kind of artfully evil. Elsewhere, like on “Have You Ever Been in Love,” the vibe is hypnotic, easy to get swept away. The song was written by everyone in the band, born out of its tribal drum beat, its open spaces. It was written quickly, “In a moment, in an afternoon,” Ackermann says, “Maybe even in an hour.” It felt exciting to write, exciting to make. And it is beautiful to listen to, the spotlight on Sandra’s beautiful vocals. It is unsteady like new love is unsteady. Scary like taking a chance on someone is scary.
Synthesizer, which is out digitally October 4 and physically October 25 via Ackermann’s Dedstrange label, is one of A Place to Bury Strangers’ most live sounding records to date. This is a band that is meant to be witnessed in a live setting, where the songs take on a new energy in the presence of a crowd. “Disgust,” the record’s lead single, captures that live essence perfectly. The song is all open strings, so that way Ackermann can perform it with his fist raised in the air, so he can play it live with one hand. It’s a tongue-in-cheek move, almost as tongue-in-cheek as the decision to start the song with a high-pitched battle cry from the guitars, which Ackermann jokes is to “turn people off from listening to the record.” That playful approach to making music and intentionality around live performance makes sense in the historical context of the band. Ackermann founded the storied DIY space (and now effects pedal factory) Death By Audio. DBA, as a venue, had a collaborative, creative spirit of chaos and collectivity. That essence appears all over the band’s work. “We’re artists,” Ackermann says, “Going to shows and bringing that imperfect and beautiful DIY ethos is important.” Imperfect and beautiful — that’s a good way to sum up Synthesizer. It is a raw collection of songs, wild and loud and fucked up just like the instrument itself.
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