The heaviest tracks of a surprisingly rocking outing find Santana sounding more energised than he has in years.

This feels like the album of a group recharged; lent a new perspective by the pandemic, perhaps. [Nov 2021, p.73]

Not just faster, but harder, too. ... Best of the lot is Loud. [Nov 2021, p.75]

The Roadside EP is every bit as cool and continues to the unexpected good form that the Rebel Yell legend displayed on his last studio records. [Nov 2021, p.77]

What metal's fundamentalists will think of it is anyone's guess, but this is the sound of the genre's future. [Nov 2021, p.77]

All told, a crowd-fuelled triumph. [Nov 2021, p.75]

The band's heart-grabbing riff hooks found on Into The Blue and sultry Siouxsie Farrago are in short supply, but as closer Left Too Soon grows from astral acoustic ballad to customary cataclysm, there's no let-up in their seductive assault. [Nov 2021, p.70]

The rest of the album is all over the map, from electro-rocker Let’s Get The Party Started (featuring Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon) to Charmed I’m Sure’s dub-step metal. It’s fun hearing Morello stretch out, though all but the most broadminded RATM fans are unlikely to feel the same way.

At no points does the listener throw up their arms and shout, “My God! Let It Be is the greatest Beatles album ever made!” but this larger, panoramic overview does wonders for the record, giving us a bird’s-eye view of the sessions. Buy it and you’ll play it a lot. [Nov 2021, p.82]

Chunky, repetitive stun-gun guitars, sore-throat howls, throbbing digital backbeats, check, check, check.

Howlin Rain have fashioned an album that eschews the harder rocking moves of predecessor The Alligator Bride for a mellower although no less impactful approach. [Oct 2021, p.74]

A richly dense experience that also channels syncopated avant-pop, semi-symphonic prog and luxuriant soft-rock. [Sep 2021, p.74]

Hearing Southern Man played on a single acoustic guitar as opposed to the thrash of the album is one epiphany, while the windswept Don’t Let It Bring You Down is cataclysmic. ... Magnificent.

The real surprise is how graceful this lockdown-inspired album is. [Oct 2021, p.74]

[A] blend of instrumental moods, torpid 80s indie and self-regarding songs that never entirely clear their launchpad. [Oct 2021, p.79]

While nothing here is wrong, very little - unlike the VU themselves - is unexpected or thrilling. [Oct 2021, p.74]

Despite lofty ambitions to write a letter 'from God to humanity' on Restless Souls, these are counter-attacked by Rebel Girl, an overstuffed, over-sweetened, male gaze-heavy, lovelorn confection that completely overrides the potential of its title. ... nevertheless, Lifeforms is beautifully produced and catchy as hell, earning itself a spot on any intergalactic playlist. [Oct 2021, p.73]

Overall these Merseyside extreme-metal veterans sound a little unfocused and uninspired on this record, falling back on tired retro-metal tropes. [Oct 2021, p.72]

It's surprisingly excellent. [Oct 2021, p.79]

For all its retrospection and melancholy there's a determination on Saloman's part to relight past fires, face down the miseries of This Britain. [Oct 2021, p.77]

It's a slow-burn of an album, sounding more layered with each listen, the strain of a pedal steel woven into the fabric of the songs. [Oct 2021, p.79]

The Vaccines' retro rock'n'roll clearly suits this kind of next-generation upgrade. [Oct 2021, p.79]

Quiet Town and Runaway Horses exhibit tender lyrical themes, and there's brief respite in the dreamy haze of Sleepwalker and Pressure Machine. However, nostalgia and the shattering of childhood idylls reoccur through In the Car Outside and In Another Life. [Oct 2021, p.78]

Infinite Granite resounds with delights in its own ingenuity. [Oct 2021, p.78]

As elegiac, brutally minimalist, silent and hymnal, disturbingly open and ultimately rewarding as before. [Oct 2021, p.77]

It's a dazzler, a dynamic folk-pop record steeped in style and bristling with modern touches. [Oct 2021, p.76]

More highly flammable melodic buzz-punk, now with added flecks of Stranglers atmospherics. [Oct 2021, p.72]

The classically trained musician's virtuosity - he plays all the instruments - is impressive, and it's matched by his lyrical themes, which are infused with quasi-spiritual belief in positive energy. [Oct 2021, p.72]