A Place to Bury Strangers

Appearing out of Brooklyn with a bang, A Place to Bury Strangers’ 2007 debut is a thing of beauty, encrusted in a dense, grit- and rust-laden sludge that takes the shimmer off. Sounding like the love child of Lightning Bolt and The Jesus and Mary Chain, this trio knows how to hammer an alluring melody out of waves of guitar distortion and effects, drenching it all in copious amounts of reverb and brutal, teeth-rattling volume. Tense, shoegaze drones and circular, propulsive drumming make for mesmerizing listening, and when the trio lays it on so heavy they nearly collapse from the weight, it’s a thrill. The aptly named “Ocean” evokes drowning, but in a good, Joy Division-overkill kind of way; the moody, raw-nerved “Missing You” morphs into a symphony of guitars mimicking screeching power drills. More, uh, delicate tracks, like “I Know I’ll See You” — with its pulsing, Cure bassline and icy drum machine —  help leaven the weight of the collection without sacrificing the intended goal of making music that is penetrating and at times, soul crushing. It’s easy to imagine Trent Reznor listening to “To Fix the Gash In Your Head,” and slapping his forehead in a “shoulda, coulda” moment. Ah, hindsight.