Front to back, Relentless, Reckless Forever is probably the most consistent Children of Bodom release yet.

A wonderfully imaginative score which deserves some recognition come awards season.

While Dead Son Rising isn't likely to propel him back into the mainstream, it's an impressively bold affair that ensures his cult status will remain intact.

Bestival Live 2011 is an understandably honest reflection of the Cure in the popular mind as their commercial high point recedes further into the past, but given Smith and the band's other contemporaneous activities, it's an incomplete portrait.

Hazed Dream is the band's subtlest album as well as its most accessible, and its low-key pleasures reveal themselves over time.

It's a curious creature with habits of its own, though the results suggest they shouldn't end this grand experiment just yet.

The target audience should think of it as a bag marked "regs" that comes with no organic flavor or transcendent buzz, but is easy to roll and surprisingly dank.

What could have been a throwaway side project has instead turned out to be a quietly charming and affectionate labor of love that hopefully won't be the last collaboration between the two.

Bootleg, Vol. 3 showcases what we already know (intellectually, at least) about Cash in a very emotional and visceral way.

This unforgiving return to form doesn't suffer from being over-thought and it's not even overwrought, but it is overstuffed at 14 tracks.

The best moments are bathed in a warm radiance that fosters a comforting, uplifting mood.... However, the content isn't exclusively cerebral, uplifting, and/or surreal.

Epic riffs play a bigger part than before, but Abasi is as jaw-dropping as ever with his double-tapping technique and arpeggiated whirlwind solos.

Turns out Odd Future benefits greatly from this duo anchoring their wild universe, as Purple Naked Ladies is one of the collective's more sensual and sensible releases to date.

Let's Go Eat the Factory is hardly a triumph, but it's a step in the right direction for Pollard, as well as confirmation that this group of friendly reprobates still has some good work left in them.

Perhaps keen to avoid their one-hit wonder status, follow-up Future This eschews their original experimental ambitions by shamelessly attempting to repeat its success.

If it isn't as strong as 2009's Something's Wrong/Lost Forever, it shows Biram is too tough and too stubborn to quit telling his tales any time soon, and for folks who like their music rough and real, that's a rare bit of good news.

Warts and all, this is one of the strongest albums in Wiley's already impressive catalog.

After 25 years, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones remain pretty much the best at what they do, and what they do remains lots and lots of fun.

Trailer Trash Tracys' try-anything attitude overpowers the actual songs, but that doesn't stop Ester from being a fascinating and often haunting debut that just whets the appetite for more.

[Songs on her album] do little to tarnish her well-earned reputation as a D.I.Y. force of nature.

These original songs may be recently written, but they are steeped in familiar structures, with lyrics full of references to drinking and loose women.

While this may not make instant fans out of their haters, This Means War will certainly give them something to consider.

If the intended result for fans is just hearing the combination of Davies' arch lyrics with Matthews' majestic arrangements and occasional breathy backing vocals, then it's mission accomplished.

The album is scattershot to its last breath, but the thrill of watching this hood star threaten to supernova is a real high.

The lead track and "In the Middle (I Met You There)" are two of Dear's sharper avant-pop songs....The back half, "Street Song" and "Around a Fountain," are elusive sketch-like tracks with slightly unsettling ambience.

Attack on Memory is another fine snapshot of a band that is growing and playing as fast as they can.

For the most part, The Lion's Roar is a mesmerizing listen that--alongside recent releases from the likes of the Tallest Man on Earth and Anna Ternheim--suggests the Swedish folk scene is currently hitting something of a purple patch.

On their seventh outing, Resolution, Lamb of God prove once again that the right ratio of barnstorming riffs and relentless intensity is all you need to make a solid album.