A Place To Bury Strangers release the newly remastered reissue of their 2009 album, Exploding Head, today on Mute / BMG. Available on limited edition transparent double vinyl, transparent red single vinyl and as a deluxe 2CD package, the CD and digital formats include rarities, unreleased material and three blistering cover versions of tracks by Love & Rockets, 13th Floor Elevators and David Bowie.

A Place To Bury Strangers will be playing songs from Exploding Head in Asia next month and in Europe in January and February 2023 – dates below.

A specially created pedal to mark the 13th Anniversary of the album’s original release is available exclusively on Reverb.com from today. Limited to an edition of 500, the bundle features the transparent double vinyl edition of Exploding Head alongside an exclusive EXPLODING HEAD Triple Delay Pedal created by Death By Audio, the hand-made effects pedal company founded by APTBS’s Oliver Ackermann in 2002. In addition to the album and pedal, the bundle also contains an Ego Death enamel pin, Deadbeat iron-on patch, Exploding Head guitar pick, 18×24” fold-out lyric poster and last, but certainly not least, a glow-in-the-dark sticker.

Talking about the pedal, Ackermann explains: “This pedal improves on the sound I used around the time I was writing and recording Exploding Head. I would do this trick where I’d link multiple delay lines to give the guitar this spooky, weird metallic sound. It’s more intense than a chorus and has a real unnatural sound. That sound exists in the EXPLODING HEAD pedal and was key to many of the songs on the record.”

Exploding Head was the band’s first release for Mute and followed their eponymous debut. The album was awarded Best New Music at Pitchfork but, where that was a patchwork of old and new tracks, Exploding Head was a direct statement. Recorded by Oliver Ackermann (vocals/ guitar), Jono MOFO (bass) and Jay Space (drums) at Death By Audio, the infamous arts and music venue/ rehearsal and recording studio, and living space that Ackermann helped build in Williamsburg, the album was engineered by Andy Smith who took the band, according to Ackermann at the time, to “a whole other level”. Ackermann, the only remaining member from this line-up, went on to talk about the album’s contrasts „I love the interplay between something that’s pretty and something that’s scary.”, which Drowned in Sound echoed in their review at the time, calling it “a perfect balance between noise and tune”.

“Cranked up, you’ll hear no more thrilling record this year”, stated The Quietus and Ackermann’s newly remastered edition of the album, featuring the singles ‘In Your Heart’ and ‘Keep Slipping Away’ as well as the incendiary finale to many of the live shows in their relentless touring schedule, ‘I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart’, has only built-in potency. The ten rarities, covers, and unreleased tracks consist of fascinating detours, roads not taken, and in a few cases, tantalising hints about where the band would go next.

A Place to Bury Strangers have just announced a European tour in January and February next year. They are also about to embark on an Asian tour in November, and have already confirmed a couple of European Festivals for 2023, including Wide Awake Festival, where they’ll play alongside Osees, Ty Segall and Gilla Band. More dates to be announced soon.

12 Nov – Keraxen Festival – Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

16 Nov – Club Seata – Tokyo, Japan

17 Nov – Koenji High – Tokyo, Japan

19 Nov – Maho Raspo Festival – Bangkok, Thailand

24 Nov – Mow’s – Quenzon City, Philippines

27 May – Wide Awake Festival – London, UK