A Place To Bury Strangers: Exploding Head

When you name your album 'Exploding Head', you are setting a standard for everything that's about to happen.

An album titled 'Quiet Serenity' isn't usually going to be filled with metal riffage and so of course an album with a title such as this one here isn't ever going to be an easy, breezy listen. 

There's a certain line that artists can cross wherein loud and experimental music just becomes noise (See Kylie Minoise for a perfect example). Though A Place To Bury Strangers manage to keep the majority of their music within the aforementioned loud and experimental territory, they just can't seem to help but slip into the unneeded and detrimental 'noise' elements at some points. Just when a song seems as if it's beginning to finish and explode into the next, they decide to extend the last fuzzy chord for a good thirty seconds, enhancing its volume and forcing us to lower our own to compensate. Turning distortion and guitar feedback into attractive melodies is a difficult thing to excel in and they seem to do rather well with it so it's frustrating to be forced to witness them try out the lesser end of the noise spectrum too. Needless additions like this seem completely surplus-to-requirement in an album already swathed in experimental appeal.

They're definitely stretching their legs a little more here than on their eponymous début and it's the moody mid-track "Ego Death" that shows them at their newest high. It's harsh and undulating, smashing a simple percussion-based rhythm in the echoing background and ripping through ridiculous amounts of guitar-fuzz the entire time. It has builds and breaks and screeching, ear-piercing squeals and every single inch is shamelessly welcomed. It grows and grows, increasing everything until the skull nearly cracks (but never explodes) and, thank the lord, they manage not to ruin it with unneeded ending theatrics. The last chord fades out instead of grates onward and crashes it's way directly into its successor Smile When You Smile. It's moments like this that show just how much potential the band have in their musical surroundings and how they can successfully up the epic factor without upping the pretentious factor too. It'll hurt your ears but god damn it's enjoyable.

In case you were wondering, this is what an exploding head looks like:

The aforementioned Smile When You Smile marks another catchy, alt-rock highlight thats less schizophrenic and chaotic than its predecessor but gallops a lot faster; swapping mood and atmosphere for swift, hyper rock and rough but reserved feedback riffage. They're not exactly pushing boundaries and, well, the idea of branching out into untouched territory is left silently in the corner (behind a veil of noise) but you have to hand it to them; they're pretty good at freaking out when they want to.

Whilst the positives are great to focus on, we simply can't forget the overbearing negatives that also come coupled with the CD. There was so much more we wanted from A Place To Bury Strangers follow-up album and though we got a few hints and promises of our musical cravings, we still feel a little empty overall. There's only a few true moments of glory to be witnessed and everything else sits as slightly-better-than-average instead of decidedly brilliant. It's not bad by a long stretch, it just doesn't necessarily stand out either. Less insanity and more thought toward divergence would have significantly strengthened its structure overall but in all honesty; we can't deny that it's still one hell of a ride. 

Just don't blame us if you can't hear properly for a little while afterward, okay?