With The Black, Asking Alexandria have made the album that they've always wanted to make. Which also happens to be the album fans have always wanted to hear. [19 Mar 2016, p.66]

Biffy Clyro have delivered an album of restless invention, substance and style that arrives like a spray of water on the arid expanse of this saddest of summers.

Fortress is Alter Bridge's most aggressive album to date. [21 Sep 2013, p.52]

20 years since their debut, Slipknot are as bold, fearless and exhilarating as ever.

Forever is sufficiently overloaded with both information and mystique to keep you coming back, well, forever. [28 Jan 2017, p.50]

Badmotorfinger is a masterclass in amplification, intelligence and artistic chutzpah. [3 Dec 2016, p.52]

This is Metallica galvanised, refreshed, refocused and rediscovering themselves. Best thing they've done since The Black album? Yep. [5 Nov 2016, p.48]

The Day's War is a record worthy of reclaiming all those devalued adjectives that have seem co-opted bu other, less-deserving recipients. [23 Aug 2014, p.52]

Put simply, Vertikal is truly breathtaking. [26 Jan 2013, p.55]

Being so musically and thematically rich, GLUE will be a lot of things to a lot of people, and therefore act as an enduring monument to being young and looking ahead in a world that doesn’t always seem to have, or want, a future. This is an album that simultaneously makes you sad and glad to be alive. Treasure it. Use it.

Now there’s much more to them. Forget the sophomore slump, Comfort To Me is the sound of a band on the rise.

The template is similar to that of their youngest selves. The knockout rock and roll riffs of guitarist Billy Zoom almost shrug at the lyrical company they’re required to keep.

At its best, The Weird And Wonderful is as fine an articulation of the thrills, spills and general confusion of being young and different in the UK as you're likely to hear. [13 Sep 2014, p.52]

A genuinely life-changing record. [3 Dec 2011, p.50]

Kodama is one of 2016's most arresting releases. [15 Oct 2016, p.53]

It's reliably puzzling and brain-meltingly good. [15 Oct 2016, p.52]

A musical purge of trauma patterns, depression, love, loss, and of course, ego, the wit and honesty of Hayley’s lyricism is the shining star of this work. It’s an unboundless exploration of a life lived under the scrutiny of misogyny and in the public eye from one of our time’s most creative and fearless artists.

It was a given that Hesitation Marks would provide Nine Inch Nails with a future. But what's so impressive here is that it's given then a future every bit as promising as their illustrious past. [31 Aug 2013, p.52]

Musically, this is the most extreme Slipknot have sounded since 2001's Iowa. [25 Oct 2014, p.52]

[A] glorious masterpiece. [11 Mar 2017, p.50]

This is a weird, unconventional and utterly thrilling classic. [29 Sep 2012, p.53]

Hesitant Alien is a magnificently oddly-shaped album that glides and jerks between styles like a turbo-charged rubber ball. [20 Sep 2014, p.52]

It's fast, It's slow, It's mature, without being boring; it rocks, even when it's doesn't. It's also one of the best albums of 2013, if not the best. [12 Oct 2013, p.50]

It's every bit the momentous record it needed to be. [28 Apr 2012, p.53]

At it's best, it's a thing of beauty. But if the duo's choruses set the gold standard, it's the riffs that are worth their weight in platinum. [23 Aug 2014, p.54]

The stunning Sweet Dreams Of Otherness is a burning behemoth of raging psychedelia – think Wade’s Dooms Children project on steroids and turned up to 11 – while Sans Soleil is a gorgeous, almost proggy anthem about overcoming an episode of depressive self-loathing that’s as poignant as it is powerful.

Many outstanding moments on this. ... A vicious mix of grime, hip-hop and punk, Bob Vylan Presents The Price Of Life is an intersectional look at what it’s like to exist as a black person in Britain within a capitalist society.

Admirably aiming high when so many seem content to play it safe and follow the footsteps of their peers, this a wonderful rollercoaster of a record that puts Creeper way out on their own. It wears its palpable love of music and art with a glossy pride and it deserves an audience that’ll cherish and unpack its layers for a long time to come.

Time Will Die is a hugely satisfying listen, with the longer songs in particular allowing the band free rein to indulge every experimental urge. ... This album sounds like a multi-part epic made up entirely of multi-part epics. And also, undoubtedly, like a career high. [3 Mar 2018, p.50]

While increased musical sophistication doesn't necessarily tell you anything about the people making the music, and insightful lyrics probably won't stop you in your tracks in a mosh-pit, if you nail both you've got an album that will explode and, more importantly, endure. Here, Every Time I Die have made the perfect example of such an album. [17 Sep 2016, p.48]

The 16 songs that comprise these two albums [Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy] remaining blinding and deafening examples of strident, courageous music. [18 Oct 2014, p.54]

The 16 songs that comprise these two albums [Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy] remaining blinding and deafening examples of strident, courageous music. [18 Oct 2014, p.54]

Les Voyages De L'Ame will surely stand unchallenged as the most ineffably beautiful record of 2012. [21 Jan 2012, p.54]

Nails have delivered one of the most savage and head-spinning albums of the year so far. [6 Apr 2013, p.53]

A wonderful rewarding journey. [15 Apr 2017, p.50]

This 11th full-length finds the Massachusetts maulers’ mastery of heavy music not just undimmed but enhanced.

On the evidence of their third full-length, this Scranton four-piece posses not one, but two examples [of good lyricists]. [19 Feb 2012, p.50]

Added together, it makes for an instantly irresistible album that – just like its opening line – is frank, fearless, funny and fucking fantastic.

Don't call it a comeback. Call it a rebirth. [15 Aug 2015, p.51]

This remastered package in all its various formats is worth buying for the absolute bonanza of extra stuff include wit it. ... At the cene of it all still sit 12 of the most charged, arrogant, piss-and-vinegar songs ever written, perfectly captured, and played by a gang of reprobates genuinely out to take on the entire world. [23 Jun 2108, p.54]

It's initially odd that the songs lack the immediacy the band are known for, but once the new-found intricacies reveal themselves and the lengthier structures click, the pay-off is huge. [8 Oct 2016, p.52]

The 12 songs that comprise the svelte but satiating Revolution Radio are among the finest to which Green Day Have put their name. [1 Oct 2016, p.50]

Bad Magic is proof that Motorhead remain the greatest rock'n'roll band on God's scorched Earth. [29 Aug 2015, p.50]

It's not nice, but Electric Wizard prove here that sometimes to achieve perfection, all you need is hate. [20 Sep 2014, p.53]

Through all this existential and unremitting bleakness, the music is vital and vibrant, using a broader palette and brighter colours than they’ve ever used before.

Musically, it radiates personality. There’s an intimate quality to Clancy that feels like you’re not only right there with Tyler, witnessing him spill his guts, but also in the studio with the frontman and drummer Josh Dun as they giddily experiment and let it all out. They’ve long been one of alternative music’s most unique bands, but on Clancy there’s a confidence in showcasing absolutely everything they’re capable of.

It's the essential elegy of everything that was and a moving reminder of all that could have been. [26 Nov 2016, p.53]

It's an often staggering record, by a great band, defying odds, on a hell of a run of first-lass creative form. [4 May 2013, p.52]

All We Love We Leave Behind will sit alongside the very best. [6 Oct 2012, p.53]

While Unto The Locust has much within it that will appeal to unreconstructed customers, parts of this work showcase a unit whose creative appetites are still restless and free.

By channeling everyone from Sonic Youth to Alice In Chains, Milk Teeth's debut hits with the power of a dozen brilliant bands at once. [23 Jan 2016, p.51]

This is not a time-weathered, diluted imitation of Faith No More. This, ladies and gents, is still "The Real Thing." [9 May 2015, p.52]

These are great songs. And this doesn't sound like a band with no road left to walk down. [26 Aug 2017, p.50]

Impressive act of defiance or not, when the dust has settled, this will also be rightly remembered as simply a great album. [19 Oct 2013, p.52]

It’s a return to rock with a capital 'R'. In fact, make that three capital 'R's.

Villains makes for a compelling lane change, finding the impetus to bring an interesting makeover. [12 Aug 2017, p.50]

Having created a monster, BMTH have proven themselves equal to matching the creative demands it’s placed on them. What a re-GeN-eration.

Sixteen years in, and it's clear Soilwork still have fertile imaginations. [9 Mar 2013, p.51]

Some of the year's catchiest most accessible alt. pop tunes of the year speaks volumes of the level upon which they're operating here. [13 Oct 2018, p.54]

Written and performed by a band well into their groove, and produced by Bad Religion legend-cum-Epitaph owner Brett Gurewitz, the finished product is finely balanced, tastefully under-polished and perfectly baked.

It's a record that ignores its own decade-long mystique to work on being important on its own merit, through dazzling songcraft and the band's unrivaled ability to pull brightness from the most freakish and inharmonious junctures. [9 Dec 2017, p.51]

For all the existential dread contained therein, G_d’s Pee… also includes moments of elegiac beauty, as on shorter tracks Fire At Static Valley and the exquisite OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN (for D.H.).

The guitarist is so focused he has arguably delivered a stronger, more consistent collection than Slayer’s last two albums, for From Hell I Rise slays from start to finish.

A very impressive album. [26 Nov 2016, p.51]

Brilliantly delirious or deliriously brilliant, International Blackjazz Society is the mark of a band that are losing their minds in the best possible way. [7 Nov 2015, p.52]

It’s a fun-packed, good-time brew, and if you’re looking to beat the January blues, Hurry Up And Wait’s party-starting fever is perfect.

Kristin has created the heaviest, most intense album you’re likely to hear this year, one that makes a tremendous addition to what is becoming one of the most idiosyncratic bodies of work in modern experimental music.

To some, Infinite Granite is a further step away from what they want. To others, a step further into it. For Deafheaven, it’s simply who they are. Truthfully, it’s who they’ve always been. No surprises here.

It's certainly an album fuelled by dissatisfaction, but it's more frantic than furious. [27 May 2017, p.52]

This knowingly middle-aged iteration of Limp Bizkit is far more likeable and less obnoxious than their younger self. But even so, they’ve lost none of their Big Durst Energy, and the knowing winks have only become bigger and knowing-er.

It comes across like the soundtrack to a great lost ’90s teen movie and, best of all, with its irresistible energy and eminently quotable lyrical couplets ('I have to say you look like Hell / Oh well'), the whole thing’s an absolute blast.

It’s the pacier moments that make up the bulk of the highlights, but there are other areas of interest. Unwanted seems determined to be lots of different things to different people, ticking boxes left, right and centre in a way that seems ambitious rather than cynical, while mostly delivering on its multitude of promises.

Damage finds them rejuvenated. [8 Jun 2013, p.53]

A band with a curious alchemy, an ensemble of stylistic contrasts, pulling together to make a record of understated pleasures.

The fiery swagger and coursing vitriol of these, Jonathan's final recordings, now stand as monuments. [23 Jan 2016, p.52]

The Canterbury quartet have cemented an incredibly engaging style all of their own. [10 Mar 2018, p.55]

Weird, arty, heavy excellence, thy name is (still) Therapy?. [9 May 2015, p.53]

The end result is maybe not as coherent as Race The Night, but it’s every bit as fun. Almost 30 years since Ash named their debut album 1977, after the year that Star Wars was released, the Force is still strong with these ones.

So far so grandiose. Fortunately, Coheed's music mirrors the scope of the project as a whole here. [ 6 Oct 2012, p.54]

It's this complete departure from the norm, this clean break from Greg Puciato's day job, that's the key to Fever Daydream's success. [30 Jan 2016, p.50]

Their diverse tunes are rough and smooth in all the right places. [20 Aug 2016, p.68]

This time out, there is greater maturity in every note. Bea’s trademark indie-folk stylings haven’t been left behind. If anything, they eclipse her grungier tendencies this time out. But on songs like the outstanding Ever Seen and Tie My Shoes there’s less lo-fi fragility and more a strident, sunbeaten warmth akin to peak Phoebe Bridgers or even latter-day Tay Tay herself.

Across its 10 tracks, Promise everything is immediate, yet charged with subtleties that offer an increasing number of things to fall in love with each passing listen. [30 Jan 2016, p.52]

As ever, SAVED! is a genuinely haunting record from an artist whose emotional articulacy is unlike any other. Creatively, it is an inspired idea, carried off by a unique talent.

The result is an album that's constantly looking for new ways to kick your teeth in, reasserting Napalm Death's status as national treasures of the homegrown extreme music scene. [25 Feb 2012, p.51]

You have a record that defies easy categorisation, reminiscent only of the restlessness embodied by outfits like Liars. If their music feels trippy and amorphous, their lyrical focus is often surprisingly specific.

All songs were recorded in one take, no editing, no bullshit, and the album simply seethes with this urgent rawness. [5 Apr 2014, p.53]

Jesse Hughes and Queens Of The Stone Age main man Josh Homme's capacity for throwing out sexy grooves has only improved with age. [3 Oct 2015, p.52]

It's a record that lives up tot he hype preceding it without seeming like it's trying to, and that shows off this youthful quartet as a truly skilled band, musically wise beyond their years. [20 Oct 2018, p.53]

Pup have come out spitting, sounding like Dookie-era Green Day dipped in tar and broken glass. [12 Apr 2014, p.53]

It's an album best-judged as its monumental whole: the sound of endless possibilities. [18 Jun 2016, p.52]

Not only is Tickets To My Downfall a slick sideways hop from what you might be expecting from Machine Gun Kelly, it’s done excellently. It celebrates everything great about pop-punk without feeling cookie-cutter or third division. It also finds its energy from the knots Kells works through in the lyrics.

This is punk as it was always meant to be: loud, ugly, righteous and alive.

Fidlar can still party; they just know they can't do it every night now. [3 Oct 2015, p.53]

With Teeth Dreams' measured and sometimes elongated songs, ideas both lyrical and musical are given room to breathe and to reach their fullest potential. [12 Apr 2014, p.53]

With a nod to the classic rock that inspired them, Greta Van Fleet continue to contort those great influences in challenging and evocative new directions.

If you’re looking for a short, fun thrill from a gang of likeable oiks with all the grace of a one-legged camel, talk to The Chats.

Words such as gorgeous, intricate, haunting, and even magnificent are easily applied across all 10 tracks here. [6 Oct 2012, p.54]