It helps the record sounds amazing. [6 Jul 2013, p.52]

Neck Deep are the most fully formed British rock band to rise to prominence in ages. And in Life's Not Out To Get You they haven't as much made a record as created a world. [15 Aug 2015, p.50]

Reiði is an album that's as difficult to get the measure of at first as its title is to pronounce. But, like any journey worth taking, it's one that rewards involvement and ceaseless exploration. [17 Mar 2018, p.54]

It’s okay to not be okay, and Spanish Love Songs celebrate that with no small amount of knowing grouchiness here. The result is an album that’s not perfect – but those who get it will fall in love with it.

Only Dust Remains is a brave, powerful and uncompromising album that holds nothing back, either in terms of Ashanti’s own life, or her views about what’s happening outside it. Yet bleak and dark as it is, there’s nevertheless hope to be found here.

Their lengthy hiatus has clearly not dulled Hot Snakes' razor-sharp edge, one bit, making Jericho Sirens a very welcome return. [17 Mar 2018, p.55]

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

The brutal death metal contained within isn't much nicer [than the cover art], a savage blow to basically anyone who's ever dared draw breath. [1 Aug 2015, p.52]

It prises beauty from unimaginable suffering. Make no mistake, Foo Fighters have delivered a masterpiece – one they never would have wanted to have to record, but a masterpiece nonetheless.

As Limerent Death gives you a one-two, you realise this will be the most chaotic funeral you've ever attended. [8 Oct 2016, p.51]

As scattered as it can be, its hit rate remains high and it’s never content to just coast.

It’s not, in fact, an exaggeration to say that there are moments on this album that almost replicate the visceral intensity of vomiting. Partly that’s due to Michael’s guttural growls, a voice that rattles and chokes on itself as it exits his mouth. Around it, though, is a brutally cacophonous swirl of sound that, especially on the title-track, is harrowing and – oddly, paradoxically, confusingly – comforting.

Twenty serves as a phenomenal mile-marker for both the past and present, and shows off just what a phenomenal and important band Taking Back Sunday were, are, and will continue to be.

They still deliver their challenging music with effortless ease. [[10 Nov 2012, p.54]

It’s not just the righteous fury of the music that makes it so great, either – these are songs built on a truly wide world of extreme sounds, welded together into a unique sonic bomb.

The one thing holding Diaspora Problems back, save for its disappointing lack of hooks, is that it doesn’t exploit its strengths as fully as it might.

It's six tracks bleed with conviction and emotional commitment, while a sense of austere grace adds depth to the jagged musical content. [21 Dec 2013, p.69]

He's reached a new creative peak. [29 Oct 2016, p.50]

Alive with the freshness and vitality of rebirth, they've delivered 11 tracks that manage to bridge the vast airiness of their mid-'00s heyday and the poppy progression of here and now. [25 Feb 2017, p.52]

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

Some of their most effective songwriting to date. The hazy, swirling sound is as beautiful as ever – see the silken Pill To Swallow and the gossamer-like I Held You Like Glass – but this time, they’ve spun it into more impactful shapes.

A little piece of heaven indeed. [26 Aug 2017, p.48]

Guitars buzz and chime, melodies uproot from the dirt and stand tall; the sum total being tan indefinable yet fascinating modern day rock opera that is as rewarding as it is unique. [4 Jun 2011, p.52]

L'Enfant Sauvage is staggering. [30 Jun 2012, p.52]

Misadventures has proudly claimed the belt as Pierce The Veil's best offering to date. [14 May 2016, p.50]

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]

Their confidence in holding back the fury also serves them well, not doing so just to make the heavier parts seem heavier, making the whole thing flow seamlessly, carrying Whitechapel almost effortlessly to the proverbial next level.

What unites all six fantastically constructed pieces on this album is the sound of a band delivering on their potential, and then some. [Nov. 19, 2011 p. 52]

Exhilaratingly expansive music balanced by a sense of darkness and foreboding, travelling simultaneously into outer space and inner turmoil. SLIFT’s expansive energy and transcendental creativity provide a uniquely rewarding thrill.

This is still towering, hazy, stoner metal--it's just shaped with more craft than once before and is therefore far more interesting. [16 Oct 2010, p.50]

EndEx doesn’t win many points for going where no band has gone before. The album, and its creators, do deserve credit for continuing the Fear Factory tradition, as an industrial metal band preoccupied with questions of how technological advancements adversely affect our lives. If you fear the future, this is the soundtrack for you.

There are a lot of records about the end of the world out there, vying for attention. This is one worth listening to. [6 Apr 2019, p.69]

Their intensity remains undimmed on Fires Within Fires, a five-song journey into the Oakland collective's commanding vision. [17 Sep 2016, p.52]

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

The main business is killing, of course, and business is very good. It’s one of the reasons why Tomb Mold are among the most respected names in the new school of old school. But by allowing their own ideas to run wild atop it all, they’re also comfortably one of its most creative.

Deafheaven have flourished magnificently here. Not just by making a god album, but by creating something that perfectly captures what they have become--a genuinely brilliant creative force unencumbered by genre, going wherever they will. [7 Jul 2018, p.53]

A positive and uplifting album, and one that marks the most hard-fought comeback of the year. [12 Dec 2015, p.50]

This is music to be inspired by. [27 Apr 2013, p.54]

The unreleased and rare recordings here make this a brilliant salute to a much-missed hero. [17 Nov 2018, p.70]

If you loved Eternal Blue, this is the record you’d want to hear next, on which Spiritbox, empowered by confidence, go bigger and (occasionally) stranger. If, however, you felt Eternal Blue wasn’t quite bold enough, then strap in for something choppier.

By the time this EP draws to a close, it’s fair to say that its creators haven’t really strayed too far from their core sound – something they’ll want to build on with future releases – but when the songs just work and everything sounds so fun, it feels rather greedy to ask for more.

This comeback album from industrial metal outsiders Godflesh effortlessly recaptures the visceral appeal of their early days. [11 Oct 2014, p.55]

A long-overdue show of individual brilliance.

While this record isn’t going to lure rock purists out of their dens, it has greater ambitions in mind, and the amount it achieves in the space that it does is staggering. For any artist of any genre, this is the textbook for innovation.

Whether this is music of meditative transcendence or uncanny terror will depend not just on the listener, but on their frame of mind and surroundings. What remains undeniable is that Sunn O)))’s all-enveloping textures occupy a landscape like no other. Slow your breathing, open your ears and let yourself be taken there.

Gloriously triumphant, weirdly exhilarating and entirely engrossing, Sunn O))) have created something genuinely brilliant here.

Synchro Anarchy is a triumph for both Voivod and progressive thrash. Not only is the quartet’s ability to remain so adventurous, skilful and consistent utterly remarkable (considering how long they’ve been at it), but they continue to showcase how perfectly such seemingly disparate styles can be merged.

It’s a good album, though not an Opeth classic. It occasionally meanders and feels in need of a few more truly golden moments to tie its various eccentricities together into a brilliant whole.

An excellent comeback. [15 Oct 2011, p.51]

The end product is cathartic metalcore that pumps out southern grit on a par with records like The Bled's Pass The Flask or Every Time I Die's The Big Dirty. [3 Aug 2013, p.54]

A compelling, dizzying blend of chaos, commotion and beauty. [2 Jun 2018, p.55]

For the most part though, this is The Ghost Inside getting back to the largely straightforward, undeniably powerful mix of metal and hardcore they have always done so well.

While this is certainly different from anything they have released previously, it is unmistakably an Amenra album – they’ve lost none of their razor sharp edge and are every bit as crushingly oppressive as they’ve always been. However, De Doorn has allowed for them to explore a much wider range of the emotional spectrum that their music is skilfully able to express and, as such, breaks down the boundaries that they have spent decades expanding on and pushing the limits of.

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

Some of the best songs [Obituary] have penned, nearly 33 years after their inception. [18 Mar 2017, p.52]

This is a wonderful document of a great show. [24 Nov 2012, p.52]

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.

There’s plenty to latch onto, whether it’s the neck-rending riffs, the snarling/soaring vocals or just wanting to vibe out and let the darkness envelope you; it’s a display of artistry.

There will be doubters and there will be haters, but Heaven :x: Hell is Sum 41 at their zenith and is, without any shadow of a doubt, the album of their career.

A supergroup that lives up to the hype. [1 Oct 2016, p.52]

There’s a gleaming shine on everything that fills it all with vitality. Far from a step back, or attempt to redress something, a return to heaviness is simply the next piece of the picture. That you can hear them fair running towards it with refreshed enthusiasm for such things only makes it sing all the louder.

Truly emphasising how far they’ve come since emo’s heyday, these songs have as much (or more) in common with alt.pop icons like HAIM, Alanis Morissette or Fiona Apple as even they do with even Paramore’s poppiest ‘rock’ contemporaries like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco.

Boasting darker, braver, more thrillingly complex compositions. [10 Oct 2015, p.52]

This is the sound of TesseracT getting even better. [25 May 2013, p.54]

A typically obdurate outing from an always captivating contributor. [15 Apr 2017, p.52]

It's a beast from start to finish. [7 Oct 2017, p.52]

This seventh record still offers plenty for those who want an aural assault. [30 Aug 2014, p.51]

Nakedly confessional or all dressed up, this is an album to cherish. [6 May 2017, p.51]

It's BMTH's innate ability to stay one step ahead, like they do here, that means the future remains firmly theirs. [19 Jan 2019, p.54]

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

Phillip and Down are on a roll from which there's no signs of them slowing down any time soon. [10 May 2014, p.52]

From the moment six-and-a-half-minute opener Almost Always shimmers into existence, it is a record that mesmerises without compromise, and which could not have come from anyone else.

The soft strummed title-track is saturated with heartbreak and rage. By the time the downbeat End Times Sermon dissolves into its ponderous parting sample, it’s hard not to feel drained and dejected, but also utterly connected to the chaos of the world falling apart around us.

What You Don't See holds up its end of the bargain, with rattlegun rhythms, sun-kissed melodies and enough grit in the guitars and frontman Parker Cannon's vocals to offset any saccharine edges. [16 Mar 2013, p.54]

Razzmatazz comes at just the right time and it was well worth the wait. iDKHOW might not be changing the game exactly, but they’re packing the kind of addictive, dopamine-like qualities that’ll make you want to keep pumping coins into the slot for another hit, time and time again.

Impera is among Ghost’s very best and sure to push them even closer to those heavenly heights.

This is the sound of Coliseum growing up without getting old and boring. [27 Apr 2013, p.54]

There are grooves within grooves, epic 10-minute jams, and they're able to create a feeling of genuine disquiet simply by shifting a drumbeat. Absolutely mammut. [28 Mar 2015, p.54]

Often commercial and sometimes devoutly, intentionally un-commercial, Splid is a delightfully edgy album from a combustible unit that, here, sound as if they might blow at any second. Volatile, tuneful, raucous and unstable, it is the perfect rock’n’roll record from a genuinely unique band.

There’s nothing too out there on Forgotten Days – the ’80s synth of the closing Caledonia probably the biggest surprise, but a welcome one: a playful take on the pain of the past – and all the tracks are solid, with any experimentation woven tightly around Pallbearer’s doom roots. This is the sound of a genre being refreshed, and of a band making it entirely their own.

Bleak as all hell, then, yet somehow this uncompromising music seems so in tune with the times that Chat Pile could genuinely be on the cusp of a major breakthrough. Don’t miss out.

Opeth have broken new ground, entered fresh realms both oppressive and melodic – but their rapier-like determination to be different may be too much for some.

Into Oblivion is probably the best thing the Virginia metallers have done in 10 years. It’s not a reinvention, but neither is it Lamb Of God making their album again. The whole thing boils with caustic energy, red in tooth and claw.

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.

Floral Green's pleasant, pastoral title belies its 11 jagged cuts. [22 Sep 2012, p.51]

It's a record that feels truly alive, filled with sorrow, guilt, selflessness and love. [17 Sep 2016, p.52]

These eight tracks bind the smart emo of Brand New to the rootsy alt.country of a Bright Eyes or Ryan Adams, stroking nostalgia and tugging the heartstrings throughout. [2 Jul 2016, p.52]

This music made the film, basically. Of course, what matters for this physical release is that, like all the best soundtracks, these songs works as an album, independently of Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike's martial kerfuffle. [22 Nov 2014, p.52]

There's a middle-fingered severity that runs right through Sulphur English, knitting these different components into a coherent identity which can't be captured by portmanteau tags like blackened sludge or post-doom. [Apr 13, p.55]

It's a hell of a return, better than you might have expected. [17 Oct 2015, p.52]

It's so genuinely anti-social, abrasive and purposeful in its mission to turn you off that it's actually impressive. [25 May 2019, p.55]

What is surprising, however, is how deep into gloom Dark Superstition dives, and the subtlety with which its cocktail of abyssal heaviness and velvety melody works its way under the skin.

Remaining as distinctive, unique and bloody brilliant as ever. [30 Mar 2019, p.55]

When Agalloch's majesty comes, the slow unfolding is more than worth the wait. [17 May 2014, p.53]

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

Scale The Summit are forging their own path, hitting a creative peak which perfectly echoes their name. [15 Jun 2013, p.54]

The rattling, almost post-rock cacophony that swirls around her, weaving in and out of chilling, eerily measured moments, makes for a spectacular, engulfing experience, too. [4 Apr 2019, p.71]

Eternal Blue is dizzying, cleansing and frightening. You need to delve deep to find your place within it, but that journey is the very thing that makes this album so interesting. It’s an entrance that brings darkness and beauty in shades of heavy that you haven’t quite encountered before.