New York’s A Place to Bury Strangers’ newest release, The Sevens, is a collection of previously unreleased tracks cut from their sixth album release, See Through You, an album that was already pushing close to an hour-long run-time. A testament to the band’s creative proliferation, this assemblage is a culmination of eight singles that do not have any of the pressure or expectations put upon them that an album release might have; the result is the APTBS doing what they do best: pure, simple post-punk, dark-wave, gothic cuts of which the only goal is to rock.

“Change Your God” was the first of these, released in February alongside “It Is Time”. These songs showcase talented guitar player and vocalist Oliver Ackerman’s ability to craft a killer, screeching riff, bassist John Fedowitz’s signature post-punk, Joy Division-esque beautiful basslines, and like all the tracks on this project, the soundscape is aesthetically dark, like a graveyard wearing eyeliner, and the subject matter comes with as much melodrama and angst as one might imagine something like that being. “Change Your God” asks questions like “Is God even real?” and “Is he looking out for us?” while postulating that God has already abandoned us. “It Is Time” brings up similar themes of uncertainty, this time being an internal struggle and intimately discussed with someone close to them.