As far as comebacks go, sadly, this is not a good one. [29 Oct 2011, p.52]

A triumph. [29 Oct 2011, p.52]

At his worst it feels more like a parody than a tribute. [29 Oct 2011, p.51]

It will probably prove overly sweet for some tastes but when they hit top form, they're an absolute joy. [29 Oct 2011, p.51]

LuLu is an album that will require many plays before the music contained within beings to make sense. [29 Oct 2011, p.50]

It's very difficult to dislike music this unashamedly cheery. [8 Oct 2011, p.52]

The Wonder years have not only delivered a genuinely great pop-punk record but a genuinely great record, period. [8 Oct 2011, p.50]

Major/Minor is an unusually conventional and yet glorious statement from a band characterised by fearless experimentation and exquisite music. [24 Sep 2011, p.53]

The Hunter is an album in which to lose yourself. [24 Sep 2011, p.52]

Neighborhoods might never quite land a knockout blow, but it certainly does enough to earn them a rematch int he future. [24 Sep 2011, p.50]

With late Love, Oslo's Wolves like is have delivered a catchy, heartfelt racket driven by throbbing grooves and drenched in ringing guitars. [18 Jun 2011, p.52]

There are dramatic dynamic shifts and a defter blend of melody and muscle, making this by far the best album the Ohio outfit have yet produced. [10 Sep 2011, p.51]

Madina Lake sound not only more organic but also more alive. [1 Oct 2011, p.51]

What Radiosurgery proves beyond any doubt is that New Found Glory are as fired up now in 2011 as they were when they first emerged in 1997. [1 Oct 2011, p.53]

This is the best album You Me At Six have made. [1 Oct 2011, p.50]

It's a great thrash record, not the jokey novelty of the genre's boom, as stainless, hard-edged. aggressive metal album that would be just as deadly were it from 2011, or 1986. [24 Sep 2011, p.51]

Whereas Puscifer's early output exercised his funny bone, the rather brilliant Conditions Of My Parole exorcises it. [15 Oct 2011, p.52]

[The] band's strange brew is as striking as ever it was, and is no less potent for being restrained by both taste and age. [15 Oct 2011, p.51]

Where the joke on Feel The Steel has yet to feel old, the laughs on Balls Out grow stale. It's fortunate then that, once again, the music holds up. [15 Oct 2011, p.50]

This is both an unpredictable, risk-taking venture and the truest hearted Alice Cooper album in many years. [10 Sep 2011, p.52]

As ever, they do a fine job here juggling endless solos among intricate vocal passages and harmonies. [Sep 2011, p.51]

This blend of grace and discord never feels jarring, combining to produce an immersive, transcendental whole which reveals the true breadth of this duo's impressive artistry. [Sep 2011, p.51]

They are creative and explorative, restless and even daring. For the most part, though, these days they're also not that good. [Sep 2011, p.50]

Nu-Metal stars release a solid effort. [Sep 2011, p.52]

If your taste in music runs to bands that are very much one of a kind then this odd and oddly loveable album might well be to your liking. [Sep 2011, p.52]

A five year pop-rock trilogy concludes in audacious style. [Sep 2011, p.52]

This is an interesting unexpected extra--pretty, rather than essential. [Sep 2011, p.51]

This album's consistent quality should easily re-establish Evanescence back on the rock map in 2011. [1 Oct 2011, p.52]

Their career trajectory continues its upward arc--but with City of Vultures, Rise To Remains have stamped on the accelerator. [3 Sep 2011, p.50]

This is an album packed not only with exuberant and quirkily innovative songs--songs that are busy with bounce and swerve--but also come equipped with a sense of energy and defiance that suggests that their authors are not going to give up simply because the terrain underfoot has become unsteady. [Sept 17 2011, p.52]

There's nothing here that doesn't earn its spot or tell a story and as a grab at something great, Polar bear Club may have just succeeded. [20 Aug 2011, p.51]

Its lo-fi, organ-heavy, cheap drum machine-driven jams reveal his ear for fusing classic team-dream rock'n'roll with demented pastiche. [Sept 17 2011, p.51]

Covering Ground is [Chuck Ragan's] third album, and once again demonstrates his versatility as a musician. [Sept 17 2011, p.51]

Twenty years and counting, Pearl Jam are still the kings. [Sept 17 2011, p.51]

It's an album that succeeds on its own terms but if it really does mark the effective end of Opeth as a metal band, that will remain our loss. [Sept 17 2011, p.50]

It can be no surprise that the group's second effort in this style is a triumph of both authenticity and quality, of fine songs and tasteful playing. [3 Sep 2011, p.51]

Layered and controlled, Elsie is an album comprised of fine music and superior lyrics. [3 Sep 2011, p.51]

While much of the record sounds like the Rolling Stones if they'd grown up as LA punks instead of English art students. Superb. [27 Aug 2011, p.52]

There is nothing incendiary here. [27 Aug 2011, p.51]

Bar the addition of piano on a few tracks, I'm With You is not so much a fresh start as a wonderful, trouble-free return to the familiar, laid back West Coast rock terrain of their back-to-back classics, Californication and 2002's By The Way. [27 Aug 2011, p.50]

The classy atmosphere of Hisingen Blues makes Graveyard sound timeless rather than retrogressive, and wholly relevant in 2011. [14 May 2011, p.51]

Impeccably executed as it all is, though, the songs lack genuine distinction and the whole thing plays out in a series of weary cliches. [13 Aug 2011, p.52]

Black Tide possess a thrash influence; they've suppressed it to make something they consider commercial metal. The result are neither, though do give rise to a new genre: boy-metal. [13 Aug 2011, p.51]

In Waves draws from the band's entire repertoire and shapes what it finds into a defining and definitive set. [6 Aug 2011, p.50]

While the band delights in surprising you, it's still slowburning doom that finds Wino at his best. [23 Jul 2011, p.51]

The Verge is the sound of a band trying far too hard to hit the mark--and falling short as a direct result of that. [2 Jul 2011, p.52]

Throughout, his sandpapered larynx lends a satisfying serrated edge here, only occasionally undermined by incongruous metalcore balladeering and the odd interchangeable riff here and there. [2 Jul 2011, p.52]

This is a noble and compelling body of music. [Jul 2011, p.51]

If all you're after is a pit-bothering lurch 'n' grind then My Damnation has it in spades, but if you're looking for anything more memorable, you'd best be looking elsewhere. [30 Jul 2011, p.52]

It's hard not to get swept along by the torrent of farce and sheer loose-footed skill on show. [30 Jul 2011, p.52]

They trash out a slew of throwaway instant classics and refresh a well-worn format for no better motive than the fact that they can. [30 Jul 2011, p.51]

Flat, uninspired riffs dressed up in pointless electronics and presided by the watery wailing of Darroh Sudderth. [30 Jul 2011, p.51]

It's extreme in a way that corpse-painted clowns will never understand--but as an expression of raw, wounded humanity, it stands as Dir en Grey's most captivating, compelling and soulful release to date. [30 Jul 2011, p.50]

It's mid-tempo, arena-ready rock that won't challenge. [9 Jul 2011, p.52]

The frontman himself proves he can actually sing in places but there's also a full quota of lung-bursting, chest-beating hardcore to remind us who this is and prevent things from ever straying too far afield. [23 Jul 2011, 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]

This is the first suicide Silence album where each song has an identity of its own, and the first suggestion that true greatness is within their reach. [16 Jul 2011, p.51]

If Not Now, When? is the work of a group who in their attempts to sound all grown-up come across as being worn-down and played out. [16 Jul 2011, p.50]

While the heat lessens toward the end, this fine return possibly betters their acclaimed debut. [11 Jun 2011, p.51]

It's really no gamble to suggest that over 31 magical minutes, Rival Sons have delivered the finest classic rock debut of the year. [25 Jun 2011, p.52]

A truly riveting record from explosive start to crushing finish. [9 Jul 2011, p.52]

A quiet but definite triumph. [9 Jul 2011, p.51]

For music so clearly divested of hope, this still radiates soul, making it a stirring tribute to Mr. Steele. [2 Jul 2011, p.51]

The sextet have stepped up their game on this record, boasting some real song writing chops too. [2 Jul 2011, p.51]

The whole thing is done and dusted in just under 40 minutes, yet zips by so fluidly that it feels half as long. [2 Jul 2011, p.50]

Effective as their hard and heavy approach is, the formulaic familiarity does grow weary at times but that won't bother their legion of diehards and Leveler might even snare some new ones. [25 Jun 2011, p.52]

The overall impression is that the Bizkit remain as annoying, entertaining and incorrigibly obnoxious as they ever were. [25 Jun 2011, p.50]

Heavy and not consistently rewarding, it is nonetheless always interesting. [18 Jun 2011, p.51]

This certainly proves that they are still a formidable force in contemporary metal. [11 Jun 2011, p.50]

Though there's no radical change to his formula here, crucially, the consistent brilliance on display means there's no need for one. [4 Jun 2011, p.52]

Over the course of their 10-year career, The Black Dahlia Murder have struck rigorously to their melodic death signature sound while delivering engaging albums, and Ritual maintains this standard. [25 Jun 2011, p.51]

Shed boasts a freshness that roots it very much ion the present, and the raw adrenaline driving the whole things is simply exhilarating. [14 May 2011, p.52]

While the Exeter band stick with the same formula throughout, they do successfully shackle the principle of less is more--if you're tiring of tone of the songs, another will come charging in to replace it before you can hit skip. [30 Apr 2011, p.51]

Sounding better than most of their studio-recorded output, Sugar Daddy's dark riffs are so sludgy you'll have to wash them before allowing them home. [18 Jun 2011, p.52]

It may not be rocket science, but there is an art to doing this right and Simple Plan have once again pulled it off. [18 Jun 2011, p.52]

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]

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]

This is a staggering album, one that leaves you bruised, bloody and breathless. [11 Jun 2011, p.52]

The overall result being that Dananananaykroyd have finally made actual songs rather than the exercises in unpredictability they have in the past. [11 Jun 2011, p.51]

There may not dispense with metalcore's regular musical motifs, then, yet the ire throughout is genuine enough that you can feel flecks of venom melting vocalist Matty Mullins' microphone. [4 Jun 2011, p.53]

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]

The wonderfully titled England Keep My Bones features some of the finest songs Frank has yet written. [4 Jun 2011, p.52]

While this is as trying and testing as it is unique, it's certainly not without its charms. [4 Jun 2011, p.51]

It's just that Dirty work is merely a good album, when it should be a great one. [4 Jun 2011, p.51]

As much of Go Now And Live proves, these days they've embraced a more mainstream, hook-fuelled sensibility. It's one that works well, but there are problems. [23 Apr 2011, p.50]

The characteristically classy playing and Angela's seething vocal delivery will provide plenty to satisfy existing fans but, importantly, this album also captures a band still hungry to progress both creatively and commercially. You can consider Arch Enemy's rise officially back on. [28 May 2011, p.50]

At its finest, this album is indecently exciting. [16 Apr 2011, p.50]

It's another diverse and engaging album from a band proudly aging like a fine malt whiskey. [28 May 2011, p.51]

Beautifully threaded together by Eddie's therapeutic strumming, mesmerizing voice and graceful transition between moods, this is a quietly understated masterstroke. [28 May 2011, p.51]

Unfortunately, not everything works quite as well [as the opening and final tracks]. [21 May 2011, p.51]

Hot Sauce is a B-Boy bouillabaisse that manages to be both familiar yet adventurous, varied yet seemless. [7 May 2011, p.51]

It won't be to all tastes, but those that care will cherish Simple Maths dearly. [7 May 2011, p.52]

It might not always offer its charms up easily, but Crisis Works is an auspicious debut. [7 May 2011, p.52]

The album sounds like Liturgy tried to make a mathcore record, put two and two together and got three. [7 May 2011, p.52]

It's a record so strong that it's hard to single out standout tracks, and even harder to locate points of weakness, and by anyone's standards this is one hell of an achievement. [30 Apr 2011, p.50]

Friends Chicks Guitars does prove that BFS can still write stonking rock 'n' roll, frat-party anthems, but generally the band make a bigger impact here when they're taking themselves more seriously. [23 Apr 2011, p.52]

In Silverstein's hands--a decade and five albums deep now--these very same, well-worn tricks work surprisingly well and it speaks volumes for the Ontario five-piece that this, their Hopeless records debut, fizzles with life and vitality from start to finish. [23 Apr 2011, p.51]

Though the band rage like a jungle fire, it's the vocals that set them apart from their peers. [19 Apr 2011, p.52]