'Onwards' to an LP

If there’s one thing 15-minute EPs shouldn’t be, it’s exhausting. Unfortunately, New York noise-rockers A Place to Bury Strangers manage to make “Onwards to the Wall” exactly that.

The five songs on the EP show occasional promise, but between the slightly-too-bored delivery of vocalist Oliver Ackermann and a lousy production job masquerading as lo-fi, the listening experience is a far cry from that of the band’s two solid full-lengths.

The title track is the worst offender. It blatantly rips off the main riff and general structure to Dead Kennedys’ “Holiday in Cambodia,” which would be criminal enough if it didn’t also manage to make that masterpiece of hardcore punk seem dull.

In the traditional recorded rock ’n’ roll business model, EPs existed as stopgap releases between LPs, which bands would work harder on. Let’s hope that’s the business model A Place to Bury Strangers thinks it is recording in.