This is perversely life-affirming stuff, translating misery into triumph once again. [23 Aug 2014, p.54]

They’ve done something even more audacious than dropping a track with an off-the-scale number of C-words in it. They’ve dropped an album of the year contender just 10 days into 2025. Big power move, that.

If you want to hear what will inevitable be one of the metal albums of the year, look no further than In Times. [14 Mar 2015, p.54]

Aggressive is very aggressive, but it's also the sound of a band showing their strength. [4 Jun 2016, p.50]

In a time where it seems everyone wants to make noisier music as an act of defiance against an increasingly cruel world, Jehnny Beth has found a way to stand out. She’s real, she’s raw, and everything here has such a strength of spirit to it that it feels truly alive.

As ever, discerning listeners will appreciate Richard Patrick's ability to send sounds spinning into their ears from several different directions. [1 Jun 2013, p.54]

Truly, Chelsea Wolfe has hit upon something very heavy here--something that'll haunt your nightmares long after it ends. [7 Oct 2017, p.53]

Just as Emperor expanded and grew with each album, becoming ever more grandiose and sophisticated, so it is with Ihsahn's solo material that he never repeats himself. [16 Jun 2012, p.54]

If You're looking for something with ambition, swagger and feel-good power, Different Creatures is your beast. [25 Mar 2017, p.52]

This is the band’s most engaging and expansive musical outing to date.

It's a continuation rather than a total rebirth, but with Reincarnate, MIW's transformation is complete. [30 Aug 2014, p.51]

From its furious themes to the explosive energy and the livewire sound, you’d be hard pressed to find a band doing anything quite like this right now, and it’s genuinely exciting to think what Nova Twins can achieve with these 10 tracks of pure sonic power in their hands.

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

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.

An album that cannot and will not stand still, or be quiet, or remain one thing for very long. In a world where many cushion themselves from ills with complacency, it’s good to have a record that’s ready to shake (and shit) people up.

Rarer still are those who can apply their personality to another’s songs and make them theirs simply by sitting down and playing them. Here, she has done so to nothing less than a triumphant degree.

[Peace is] packed with well-crafted and thoughtfully arranged compositions. [28 Sep 2013, p.54]

So, 13 albums in, Clutch are still uniquely brilliant, master craftsmen of a form at once ingeniously simple and amazingly clever. And one that only they can properly do.

Though it might fail to inspire at first, it will do eventually. A grower, then. But a genuine one. [25 May 2013, p.52]

They've taken a long sidestep from Sabbath's alter.... One that sets them up to be able to go literally anywhere from here. [22 Aug 2015, p.52]

It's bold, atmospheric and destined to play havoc with the concept of playlists. [24 Sep 2016, p.52]

Winter Kills thrills with the same potency the band have wielded throughout their career. [24 Aug 2013, p.54]

Evergreen is a reminder of what an effective, emotive songwriter she can be.

This is an album that might make you bawl your eyes out, but it may also make you feel like things are gonna work out okay. The results will probably vary on every listen, and depending where your own head’s at.

A constantly-evolving monster of a record. [21 Jan 2017, p.52]

Who Will Look After The Dogs feels more intensely personal than anything the band have made before.

It's a bold, transitional statement from a band that's still reaching for their best. [21 May 2016, p.52]

This project began as the soundtrack to an art show, and was inspired by vistas streaming past windows on interminably long drives, so none of this was meant to be easy to enjoy. It’s music to accompany contemplative walks, light skies and dark moods. It’s hard work, but it will work on you.

[A] brilliant album. [18 Jun 2016, p.51]

This is another collection as thrilling as back catalogue classics like The Elephant Riders (1998) and Blast Tyrant (2004). [1 Sep 2018, p.54]

It's an important, thoughtful album that will serve to unite the grief-stricken with a new-found sense of purpose to find some form of healing. [9 Jun 2018, p.53]

They’re making bigger leaps than ever. Even their more familiar-sounding songs show signs of metamorphosis.

Not only is United We Stand a triumph, it's a thrilling love letter to nearly 30 years of alt-rock. [5 May 2012, p.53]

A thunderous, cathartic debut that remains subtly political and emotive while prioritising surface-level pandemonium. From top to bottom, it exists on the edge of a cliff.

There is a very good rock record waiting for you here – and certainly one that deserves to be appreciated by many more than nine people.

Atop these intoxicatingly addictive gems are the vocals of bandleader Kim Shattuck. [6 Sep 2014, p.54]

As a whole, this is BSC's dirtiest, heaviest outing yet. [27 Mar 2016, p.51]

As they get older and wiser, when they focus their songwriting skills like they do on Saviors, they are as sharp, bright and essential as they’ve ever been. And they still know who they, and you, are.

The sheer, unreconstructed manliness and testosterone that flows through every riff takes you right to the heart of whatever battle Amon Amarth are embroiled in. [2 Apr 2016, p.52]

For those who like black metal to creep up and slowly drain the light from the world like a suffocating nightmare, Myrkur are manna from Hell. [22 Aug 2015, p.53]

Ambitious and controversial, it's a creditable pass that's not perfect, but has flashes of brilliance. [29 Apr 2017, p.50]

This is the record that brands SWS as a very big deal indeed. [7 Mar 2015, p.52]

Throughout, layered vocals sit gloriously atop it all, like a doomed Bruce Dickinson. [16 Jun 2018, p.59]

Howling is full of venom, inspired by history and politics to create a dense mix of buzzsaw riffs and eerie atmospherics. [17 Jul 2017, p.52]

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]

Behind every good DIY punk outfit, there's some smart songwriting in place. Boston;s Pile prove this and more here on their fourth full-length. [7 Mar 2015, p.53]

Music born of despair has rarely been as exhilarating as this. [15 Jun 2019, p.55]

This is not a giant sonic leap from her day job. Where it differs, though, is in the breadth and feel of the material. ... Lyrically, Laura is on blistering form. [10 Nov 2018, p.54]

While it isn't Bullet's best album, it's certainly their most mature and interesting effort to date. [2 Feb 2013, p.52]

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.

Save Rock And Roll is bonkers, brilliant and it's Fall Out Boy like you've never heard them. [13 Apr 2013, p.58]

Aftershock proves that they can still produce the goods in the studio. [2 Nov 2013, p.52]

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

Conduit may not be an album to please those who fell in love with Tales... but for anyone pining for a return to Funeral For A friend's earliest EPs, it's very exciting. [2 Feb 2013, p.53]

When Black Veil Brides have made an album as fist pumpingly anthemic and as downright fun as Set The World On fire is, you'd be incredibly foolish to bet against them doing just that. [18 Jun 2011, p.50]

Panic! At The Disco's latest offering is a good time, almost all the time. [5 Oct 2013, p.52]

It's business as usual, then--even with a manic cover of 99 Bottles Of Beer. [2 Nov 2013, p.53]

They may not have subtlety in their arsenal but then again, with riffs this menacing, who needs it? [21 Jan 2012, p.52]

This is an album full of stirring, stadium-sized melodies. [2 Feb 2013, p.53]

This is punk at its most multifaceted and emotional, overflowing with desire and angst.

While their sloganeering remains simplistic, the courage of their convictions continues to drive them forward against an unforgiving world in style. [18 Jun 2011, p.51]

The album sprawls between ferocity, relentless rhythms, and sombre moments. [19 Oct 2013, p.54]

Like all good follow-ups, this album retains the qualities you loved about the first installment. [2 Feb 2013, p.54]

With singer Lacey Sturm plastering every word in M-E-L-O-D-Y, she ensures that the choruses of Fire Fire, Cage On The Ground and the title track all pirouette around you brain for days. [13 Apr 2013, p.60]

Blood Incantation have created a contender for death metal album of the year here.

Burials is an album that finds darkness everywhere. [19 Oct 2013, p.54]

Anyone who remembers Mike covering Italian pop songs from yesteryear ion his 2010 album Mondo Cane will know, strictly speaking, a few of his recent projects have sounded more interesting than they have incredible. Thankfully, Oddfellows is both. [2 Feb 2013, p.54]

The best thing about Paranormal is that it sounds exactly like an Alice Cooper album. [28 Jul 2017, p.50]

Brilliant, Melvins, brilliant. [18 Oct 2014, p.54]

Biting, poetic and awkward, this is music with brains to match its brawn. [19 Oct 2013, p.54]

This is an album that feels as much like a series of compelling stories as it does a collection of fine songs. [21 Jan 2012, p.53]

The Shadow Side reveals Andy Black as a creative force of his own, albeit one still finding his sound, his boundaries, his feet. [30 Apr 2016, p.66]

It's daring and rarely less than dazzling. [6 Apr 2013, p.52]

You'll need to sit down when it's all over, but you'll soon be right back to the start, re-embracing that darkness. [28 Jul 2017, p.48]

Fearless album, an absolutely banging document of the last two years that will resonate far beyond his existing audience.

Sure, not every song is something to write home about, and not everyone is going to be on board with a new singer, but as a piece of work, it’s a clear reminder of why Linkin Park reached the heights they did and continue to influence multiple generations of artists. Welcome back.

Disarm The Descent is an overdue return, a prodigal son story and their best album since The End Of Heartache. [6 Apr 2013, p.53]

Musically there’s a touch more considered atmosphere than on predecessor AmeriKKKant, but this new Ministry line-up – featuring former Tool bassist Paul D’Amour and guest appearances from the likes of Billy Idol guitarist Billy Morrison and former Megadeth man David Ellefson – still knows how to rage.

Apocalyptic Love, the album, is at its best when Slash is operating within the team. [9 Jun 2012, p.52]

The Essex star’s already demonstrated that she’s adept at crafting a banger that plays in your brain on loop for hours, but she’s somehow improved the recipe of whatever secret sauce goes in these songs.

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

The results equates to a highly original sound that tends to be loved by blokes and blokes only. [12 Nov 2011, p.53]

After a decade-plus of no small creative achievement, Thursday have outdone themselves. [9 Apr 2011, p.51]

By no-holds-barred closer The Scythes Remorseless Swing, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed with sheer awe just seeing these death metal progenitors getting back to murderous business. Killer stuff.

Live At Maida vale remains an excellent appetizer for Baroness' return. [27 Jul 2013, p.54]

Greta Van Fleet aren’t offering anything innovative or original, and much of their appeal surely comes from listeners’ appetite for simpler times of players plugging in and rocking out which will never truly be rekindled. Hand yourself over to a psychedelic song of praise like Trip The Light Fantastic, though, or fall into The Weight Of Dreams’ fathomless nine minutes, and this legitimately might be the next best thing.

At some point, a little experimenting may be needed, but for now this cements their status as the behemoths of British rock. [17 Jul 2017, p.50]

Supernova basks in its own raw originality and kicks any naysayers to the curb with its unforgettable impact.

Across a stirring nine-song sprawl, they showcase enough pulsating purpose, and fresh folds of their rich Gothic influence, to prove there’s still plenty to be drawn from that deep well.

If the Devil really does have all the best tunes, he's loaned a few of them to Ghost B.C. [6 Apr 2013, p.55]

Bryce's masterful way with a melody shines through once again. [9 Jun 2012, p.54]

[An album] that'll slowly reveal its full charms across repeated listens. [10 Sep 2016, p.51]

Worth the price of admission for the Brilliant My Last Words alone, this remains a fascinating portrait of the artist as angry young man positioned on metal's sharpest cutting edge. [9 Jul 2011, p. 52]

The lyrics, of course, are predominantly berserk. It wouldn't be a Rob Zombie album if he was to get all sensible on us, and it's fun picking through them. In fact, 'fun' is perhaps the best word for the record, which is a riot from start to finish.

This introspective, incendiary, searingly intelligent set of songs finds them as emotionally invested as they’ve ever been.

It’s not perfect (hello, Bending The Arc To Fear), but for a band previously hindered by wearing their influences so blatantly on their sleeve, they have made it to their final form.

Cave World is an album brimming not just with colour and life, but also with a sense of striking unease that is pitched somewhere between the deeply sexual and the profoundly sinister. ... That all of this strangeness is carried aloft on a smorgasbord of varying musical styles makes Cave World all the more alluring.

The Spiritual Sound is a fathomless pool worth hurling yourself into, a shimmering, shattering new landmark on heavy music’s mind-expanding outer limits.