A Place To Bury Strangers
‘Exploding Head’
(Mute)

A Place To Bury Strangers mark their debut on Mute with an aggressive, sinister record that’s as spooky as it is impressive. The shadows of Joy Division mingle with the spirits of My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain across ten tracks of echoing vocals and crunching guitars, as the album’s sense of menace builds to closer ‘I Live My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of You Heart’, which is a charming mess of pure, ear-splitting noise. There is a more chart-friendly offering slipped into the melee as melody gets a rare look in on ‘Keep Slipping Away’, but, largely, ‘Exploding Heads’ succeeds in getting you dangerously close to what the title suggests is the implied effect.

Molly Jones