This album truely is a collection of gems. [Oct 2007, p.162]

It truly does feel as if they've been holding this emotion back since the day they parted and now unleashing everything in an explosion of creative energy, delivering a magnificent record that while fresh and exciting, could only be the work of far. [Jun 2010, p.102]

Packed with timeless rock songs. [May 2005, p.174]

STD are as tight and melodically brilliant as ever, but the previous trilogy’s anguish and inner turmoil seem to have been replaced by warm sentimentality, declarations of undying love, and smart discourse on relationships and the human condition, with the occasional killer curveball.

The band have transcended to a newfound comfort, creating the most natural music of their career. [Jun 2015, p.97]

A fine bounce-back from the lackluster They Want My Soul, as they seemed to have found their attitude and swagger. The glitzy, moody atmosphere they conjure up is a hella good look. [Apr 2017, p.82]

With an occasional chest-bursting "yeeeeeeah", Vile avoids letting his most straightforward, circular songs fall into a stupor. [Apr 2011, p.115]

The album makes a vibrant statement. [Dec 2001, p.82]

Features less avant-garde noodling and more straight-up Youth. [Sep 2002, p.96]

Asleep is just enigmatic enough to avoid plagiarism. [Mar 2002, p.77]

Here, retaking the signature spell that Hellion and crew first conjured in the ’90s Cleveland scene, the band’s haunted hardcore gets a fresh coat of paint for the next stage of darkness. If you’re ready to enter the nightmare, this will get you howling.

Rather Ripped is the sound of a band no longer setting their distortion pedals on stun, and, as a result, the best songs are as low-key as a small town on Sunday morning. [Aug 2006, p.218]

A ripe thriller, the work of a facile talent with a newfound fecund baritone that goes places where Pulp could not tread. [Jun 2007, p.150]

10 tracks of alien grooves, percolating beats and shimmering atmospheres that are engaging, sophisticated, and mature. [#146, p.101]

A bewitching fusion of orchestral prettiness and exploratory electronics. [Aug 2003, p.108]

Like most good thematic albums, or films or books, for that matter, it's hard to put the pieces together on Album Of The Year, and just when you think you've got the narrative unraveled, you'll rediscover another lost passage or double entendre. [Sep 2004, p.122]

Sykes’ increased vocal range also proves a formidable addition to their arsenal, coalescing with the expanded sonic palette for a more intimate, cohesive and engaging collection.

The album's strongest moments are found in the duo's ability to live in the moment and take a deep, cleansing breath. [Nov 2014, p.88]

The folk direction of the group's past few albums still lingers, but it's mostly buried behind immense decibels and frightening intensity. [Nov 2012, p.92]

Iron Balls Of Steel is as serious as a metal recording gets; and, at least until those new Meshuggah and Dillinger Escape Plan discs get mastered, it's also the greatest math-metal album of this still-young year.

Damn odd. [Jul 2005, p.186]

Even though the delineation among colors at times seems a bit arbitrary and difficult to differentiate, The Color Spectrum stands up surprisingly well as a companion disc. [Jul 2011, p.111]

While still drenched in anguish, regret and torrential riffs, Parting The sea gives Bolm's prose-dense vignettes and feral confessions the full punch and epic scope they deserve. [Jul 2011, p.112]

The whole glorious mess creates a dramatic Wagnerian opera that's (barely) held together by Congleton's yelping. [Aug 2006, p.206]

Sure, sometimes the angst gets too angsty and a couple songs feel a bit like throwaways, but this is a great, memorable and oftentimes moving release from someone who sounds like she has about 20 years and 10 albums more experience than she does.

Anyone with an appreciation for smartass MCs and a little of Fender-tapping would do well to give TSOL a spin. [Nov 2010, p.116]

Coxon rocks it in a class of '77 Brit-punk style that'll make record-collecting fetishists in search of Adverts and Chelsea demos soil themselves. [Dec 2006, p.198]

Fever Ray is most reminiscent of the Knife self-titled debut--which means it's merely fantastic rather than transcendent. [May 2009, p.114]