The press promptly hailed A Place to Bury Strangers as “the loudest band in New York” when the trio released its self-titled debut in 2007—quite a compliment considering the masses of sonic terrorists lining up to play Brooklyn’s DIY venues. Now with Exploding Head, APTBS has refined its industrial shoegaze into something more tuneful, but no less brutal. Actual songs peek out from under the great morass of singer Oliver Ackermann’s scathing guitars. “Keep Slipping Away” and “Exploding Head”—held aloft by a newly invigorated rhythm section—are as danceable as they are hummable. “Dead Beat” is a surf-punk horror show and the towering “Ego Death” filters early Nine Inch Nails through Link Wray’s “Rumble.” Loud isn’t the half of it.