This is one of the finest pure punk releases of the year. [ 30 Jun 2012, p.54]

It's an energetic debut that certainly shoes that this band is full of--as yet untapped--potential. [11 Feb 2012, p.52]

The Ghost Inside still smack like a wrecking ball. [16 Jun 2012, p.53]

Perhaps a little of the sparkle the absent Alkaline Trio two bring is missing here, yet pleasingly little else is. [12 May 2012, p.54]

The open-minded will find that Harmonic is a journey well worth making. [12 May 2012, p.54]

They may tick all the metalcore boxes, but do so with aplomb. [30 Jun 2012, p.54]

life Cycle is the sound of [their] potential exploding into being. [30 Jun 2012, p.54]

They've not skipped a beat, picking up where they left off. [30 Jun 2012, p.54]

A fine album from an often overlooked band. [30 Jun 2012, p.53]

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

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]

This is as exciting as heavy music gets in 2012. [23 Jun 2012, p.54]

Too often, Living Things is the sound of a band with vast talent, but also one that hasn't figured out where to go next. [23 Jun 2012, p.52]

These songs gleam like freshly polished diamonds. [ 23 Jun 2012, p.53]

It's a study in twisted instrument abuse. [10 Jun 2012, p.54]

On Oceania, Smashing Pumpkins finally sound like a band with an idea of where they're going. [10 Jun 2012, p.52]

It's not what you came in for, but quite pleasant all the same. [10 Jun 2012, p.53]

The Industrialist doesn't quite live up to the band's former glories. [[9 Jun 2012, p.53]

Rest assure, few bands combine hilarity and ferocity as well as Future Of The Left. [9 Jun 2012, p.54]

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

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

They sound more surefooted. [26 May 2012, p.52]

Th songs are reductive, redundant, unimaginative, and dull. [26 May 2012, p.54]

It's a stunning return to form from a band whose best years, until now, had looked to be behind them. [26 May 2012, p.54]

For every ELO-meets-Panic!-At-The-Disco pop gem that makes you think Fun. are great, there's also an Auto-Tuned-to-buggery vocal or irksome trumpet riff that simply grates. [26 May 2012, p.53]

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

The time when even twitter goes quiet and the world belongs to the insomniacs, the troubled and the drunk, all of who will find solace in the Thurlows' urber-moody noisepop. [2 Jun 2012, p.53]

It's edgy. inventive, and occasionally frustrating. [2 Jun 2012, p.53]

It's an album that will divide and delight. [2 Jun 2012, p.54]

Lex Hives may not re-write The Hives' rulebook, it does offer proof that this band sounds heftier and, somehow, even more colorful than before. [2 Jun 2012, p.54]

The result is a fresh, pavement-referencing quirk on tracks Like Son Of A Gun and Boxelder. [2 Jun 2012, p.52]

Fewer songs here race and pulsate as before, but Chuck Ragan and co.'s gruff mix of grit and sweat remains in full effect. [May 2012, p.54]

Not Your Kind of People is a wonderful album full of something Garbage have never really possessed before: humanity. [May 2012, p.53]

Something's horribly lacking here. Namely, actual songs. [May 2012, p.53]

BC's second album fizzes with both upbeat hymns to fun in the sun and achingly sad odes to lost love. [May 2012, p.53

And so, just like that, Tenacious D are back. They're funny, they're absurd and they're hotter than a phoenix. Sorry, fenix. Let's just hope we don't have to wait another six years for the next one. [May 2012, p.52]

It's an utterly loveable album which truly says more in those 13 minutes than some bands manage in entire careers. [19 May 2012, p.54]

In allowing their imaginations to run riot in a gloriously self-indulgent way, they've made a record possessed of an extremity all of its own. [5 May 2012, p.53]

It's chaotic, panic-inducing and downright delirious. [5 May 2012, p.53]

Twelve years puts the emotion back into emo. [5 May 2012, p.54]

The fury here comes from an ominous intensity and oppressive claustrophobia. And that makes this album raw, anarchic, bleak and enjoyably nasty. [45 May 2012, p.53]

In the larger context of the lack of musical progression and creative imagination, the inertia that is Off!'s modus operandi is nothing less than depressing. [5 May 3012, p.53]

Weather Systems is entirely devoid of death growls and contains only the barest hint of volume and aggression. What it does have is lush instrumentation and a sense of drama without the use of distortion. [28 Apr 2012, p.53]

Harmonicraft still brings the heft and thick cut distortion, but never wastes a single moment's breath on anything superfluous. [28 Apr 2012, p.53]

Perhaps it's too monochrome, too arty. [28 Apr 2012, p.52]

A band who've proven that 21st century thrashers can give their predecessors a run for their money. [14 Apr 2012, p.54]

These four pieces make a case for Pelican's future being far brighter than expected. [14 Apr 2012, p.54]

Slave To The Game shows that they've made no attempt to advance from the tedious, well-worn and weary chug, breakdown and death growl routine. [14 Apr 2012, p.54]

This continues to be the same DragonForce you either love or laugh at, but on The Power Within they've honed their sound to absolute perfection. [14 Apr 2012, p.53]

Dead Set On Living is raw, visceral and an antidote to the glossy sounds and polished looks that abound right now. [114 2012, p.52]

It's truly impressive stuff, and a reminder of just how good they are. [7 Apr 2012, p.51]

Relapse finds them wielding those familiar sledgehammer beats and streamlined thrash riffs in a most effective fashion. [7 Apr 2012, p.52]

It finds the band sounding leaner and more direct than ever before, [11 Feb 2012, p.52]

It packs a ferocious, formidable bite. [3 Mar 2012, p.54]

It's weighty and impressive in places, but without Pepper's howl it also sounds curiously incomplete. [3 Mar 2012, p.53]

Ex Lives should help them join the big boy's table. [3 Mar 2012, p.52]

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]

It's impressive to hear how Sleigh Bells rock so hard with so little. [19 Feb 2012, p.52]

The result is the band's most consistently exciting release to date. [19 Feb 2012, p.51]

This is sparse, atmospheric and utterly compelling. [19 Feb 2012, p.51]

The production is big on bluster and stadium-sized punch, but, sadly all of the passion's also been squeezed out here. [19 Feb 2012, p.51]

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]

The result is one their most confident, consistent and cohesive record in 10 years. [11 Feb 2012, p.50]

It's not bad but Bleeding Through have proved they're capable of a lot, lot more. [11 Feb 2012, p.51]

Songs like She and the superb On The Wings Of Gloria reek of patchouli and incense, their warm sounds bring F's satanic lyrics colourfully to life. [3 Dec 2012, p.52]

Separated from the narrative and visuals it's designed around, the music emanates an isolated, dissociated air, but that only adds to its jarring overall effect. [3 Dec 2012, p.52]

This is a solid, talented and very decent record. But it lacks sparkle. It lacks charisma and personality. [12 Nov 2012, p.52]

It lurches, as such compilations sometimes do, but those lurches, are from intimate to inviting, triumphant to introspective and funny to heartfelt. [14 Jan 2012, p.51]

This 10-track effort is rammed with classic moments. [28 Jan 2012, p.53]

This is a album that sees the band right back to their best. [21 Jan 2012, p.53]

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

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

It's the quirky structures and finely drawn lyrical observations that provide the real hooks here. [28 Jan 2012, p.53]

As usual, Attack Attack! will polarize opinion but artistically and technically, this is a serious step up. [14 Jan 2012, p.52]

Iron Balls Of Steel ultimately raises eyebrows more often than it does fists. [14 Jan 2012, p.51]

This 11-song set is a good deal of fun to listen to. [14 Jan 2012, p.50]

They're still aggressive, heavy and furious, but this new approach also makes them relevant, incisive and swaggering again. [10 Dec 2011, p.50]

OOFP propels Robbins' melancholic take on post-hardcore to exciting new heights. [ 17 Dec 2011, p.52]

This is a rip-roaring, multi-faceted rock fest. [17 Dec 2011, p.52]

By showcasing progressive metal in its truest, multi-dimensional form, it strides triumphant. [12 Nov 2011, p.54]

Finally, this rock star has some rock worthy of the same name. [23 Jul 2011, p.50]

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

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

Remastered, here, and packaged alongside demos, radio sessions, alternative mixes and a live DVD, it shows the breadth of the band's early ambitions. [3 Dec 2011, p.50]

This Means War and Bottoms Up are such generic rock "anthems" that they could have been releases in any decade since the '80s. The lyrics, meanwhile, seem to date from the '70s, possibly the 1870s. [3 Dec 2011, p.51]

A powerful, soul-striating record that needs and deserves attentive ears. [26 Nov 2011, p.53]

The result is a bouncy, punk-fuelled album that's entertaining enough if throwaway in the extreme. [12 Nov 2011, p.53]

The result is a treat for diehard fans only and entirely dispensable for anyone else. [12 Nov 2011, p.54]

Basically a single with extra padding, Recorrupted is nothing more than a forgettable stopgap release. [19 Nov 2011, p.51]

It can be boring and not much fun. [19 Nov 2011, p.50]

An EP that's more than a stopgap, Polymers ... refines the ex-McClusky men's sound without making it boring. [Nov. 19, 2011 p.52]

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]

Good lord, what a voice Chris Cornell has - rich, bruised, defiant, fragile and strong, be bends it to his will. On Songbook ... [his voice] carries the album as it stands starkly against his simple guitar backing. [Nov. 19, 2011p. 51]

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

With its obvious choruses and routine abrasive sections,, the more discerning ear will recognize that this band wield far more force than they do finesse. [29 Oct 2011, p.52]

Forever Abomination will appeal to fans of metal, whichever camp they're in. [8 Oct 2011, p.51]

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.