A Place To Bury Strangers 'Exploding Head' (Mute) Released 05/10/09

The tinnitus might have gone but the noise-peddling trio haven’t and less than a year since the release of their enjoyably loud debut, A Place To Bury Strangers are back, equally as loud with subtle tweaks of welcome reinvention.

Fashionably accused of being shoegaze revivalists, it seems the tag has had some effect, adding more borrowed nostalgia to their deafening sound, which is best described through the album title. Surprising is a measured reduction in wall to wall ear bleed guitar and a sense that A Place To Bury Strangers are starting to find their feet. A smattering of bouncing pop bobbing electro pleasantries are exchanged with the signature crush of guitar and effects throughout ‘It Is Nothing’, ‘In Your Heart’ and ‘Keep Slipping Away’ managing to create the short-lived sound of an obscure mid 80s group with a clutch of independently released singles that would one day prove mildly influential.

Unfortunately the second half of the album borders on relentless directionless indulgence. There might not be much in the way of escape, yet despite the long track durations, it’s not a long album. As you’d expect, with a vocalist that owns an effects pedal company titled Death by Audio among your ranks, howling squalls are a must, industrial isolation an inevitability and paranoia just around the corner in the form of ‘Lost Feeling’ and ‘Dead Beat’ the arcs of which are impressively annihilating if not exhausting, draining and oppressive by the time ‘Ego Death’ rolls along.

At times its enough to induce uncontrollable bowl movements, ‘Smile When You Smile’ too effects heavy, ‘Everything Always Goes Wrong’ piercingly unexplained with malice and the title track making up the numbers in a guessing game of if it aint broke don’t fix it and turn everything up to eleven while you’re at it.

It’s a bit of a shame really, but in keeping with the second half of the album, everything boils down to a rather protracted conclusion with ‘I Lived My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart’, which screams with the lungs of an attention-seeking child that should be seen but not heard, at least, not as loudly.