When Junkyard hit, the Birthday Party’s early days as squirrelly Australian schoolboys must have seemed a lifetime ago rather than just a few years (and admittedly a move halfway around the world). Moments aside, the explosive manias evident on the previous Prayers on Fire became the group’s reason for being, with Nick Cave’s bellowing howl and snarl cutting across the roaring din of everyone else, Rowland Howard’s guitar literally sounding like metal shards and Tracy Pew’s bass a near obscene rumble on songs like “Big-Jesus-Trash-Can” and “Dead Joe.”

– Ned Raggett