The title-track harks back to the spirit of golden-era Bon Jovi, though, and there are dashes of it scattered throughout. [22 Oct 2016, p.68]

They're strutting along a tightrope without a downward glance here. [27 Jan 2018, p.50]

Venom has injected a whole new life into the British metal heroes. [1 Aug 2015, p.50]

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]

This glossy but bland procession is likely to be a weakening experience. [14 Jul 2012, p.53]

They might have over-egged the acoustic balladry here, leading to their airiness unbalancing the syncopated beefiness elsewhere, but it's delivered so slickly and confidently that few fans will care. [20 Oct 2018, p.55]

It is a bold, best foot forward tribute to where they've come from, what they are capable of and, perhaps most importantly, where they're going next. [28 Aug 2010, p.52]

It's a bit rawer, significantly darker and a lot more Momsenier. [15 Mar 2014, p.53]

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

A largely drab album. [10 Feb 2018, p.51]

The result is a collection of undignified Pierce The Veil-lite songs that are fitted with all the bells and whistles, but absolutely none of the quality that makes that band successful. [8 Jul 2017, p.52]

Rituals is a bold, yet ultimately auspicious step forward. [4 Aug 2018, p.53]

As a way of rehabilitating his reputation, this is certainly a solid start. [28 Mar 2015, p.54]

It feels like there's not much tread left on the tyres, although the speaker-thumping production of Hexed make it a cut above 2015's I Worship Chaos. [9 Mar 2019, p.55]

As painful and draining Korn III undoubtedly must have been to create, there's no doubt that it re-asserts the quartet's status as one of metal's most innovative bands. [10 Jul 2010, p.50]

When Rise is good, it's a blast. However, like the boozy gang from which they take their name, there's a tendency toward excess. [22 Jun 2019, p.59]

Ultimately, Bush devotees who lived through the alt.rock ‘90s will find much to love about The Kingdom. But it is also an album delivered with Rossdale’s customary style and panache, not to mention tunes that sit elegantly alongside the likes of Everything Zen and Swallowed.

Those still pining for the slick, sparkly, arena-sized rock bombast of the masterful This Is War will be left wanting, but such is how things go on Mars, and it’s a hearteningly better album than the awkward, confused America. The guitars are back.

Live On I5 is a visceral, honest live album with little if any studio trickery, but it's clearly not Soundgarden at its finest. [19 Mar 2011, p.52]

It'll be too sappy for anyone who likes their rock raw, but if simpler pleasures tickle your pickle, there are few bands in this sphere pulling it off as expertly as the veteran Buffalo trio. [8 Jun 2013, p.54]

These masterfully cherry-picked tunes help explain why it's not always clear whether Ghost B.C. are a metal act with pop leanings or vice versa. [9 Nov 2013, p.52]

A Beatles-inspired quirkiness cannot save this collection of acoustic jingles, almost all of which are limp enough to make All Time Low sound like Slayer. [20 Nov 2010, p.52]

It's 14 tracks of craziness to be embraced and shouted at the rafters. [10 Feb 2018, p.50]

Essential? For completists. Worth hearing? Absolutely. [7 Nov 2015, p.50]

British Lion is a brilliant album. [8 Sep 2012, p.52]

With Ungrateful, Escape The fate have finally delivered the album they needed to make. [11 May 2013, p.53]

So far, so good then. It’s a takeaway reinforced by most of the album, in fact. ... Where Let The Bad Times Roll will likely divide opinion is in the mid-point, three-track swing of the aforementioned, ice-hockey-goal-music swagger of Coming For You, the bookending, rocked-up cover of evil orchestral classic In The Hall Of The Mountain King, and the embarrassing dad overshare of We Never Have Sex Anymore.

Nate and his crew are charming, more often than not. [7 Mar 2015, p.54]

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

The rest of these songs weren't good enough to make it onto 2005's Make believe or 2008's Weezer (The Red Album), which says it all really. [6 Nov 2010, p.51]

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

Justice For None is an album that delivers Five Finger Death Punch's wallop adequately. 19 May 2018, p.53]

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

Machine Gun Kelly’s detractors will likely have you believe Mainstream Sellout is terrible. It isn’t, but nor is the fire burning as bright as it once was. There’s some fun to be had here, but ultimately, this is the weakest record of MGK’s rock era so far.

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]

The good news is that the riffs are back. [8 Sep 2012, p.53]

As a stopgap EP this might not be the best introduction to their brilliance. [27 Jul 2013, p.53]

Immortalized isn't without its duffers. [22 Aug 2015, p.51]

[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]

A mostly sluggish record. [8 Oct 2016, p.52]

It's not much of an evolution, but the revolutionary fire still burns. [6 Jun 2015, p.53]

He goes from pretty ditties to outright tedium as songs drag on interminably and eventually, unlistenably. [10 Nov 2012, p.53]

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

An outfit possessed of a murderous groove. [9 Sep 2017, p.51]

It lacks a little cohesion and substance beneath all of the surface clatter. [18 Aug 2012, p.53]

Million Miles An Hour is the kind of dumb, red-cup rock that only very clever people can write, while Get 'Em Up is the best song about erectile dysfunction (we think) ever written. [29 Nov 2014, p.52]

Frontman Tyler Connolly spends a little less time moping than previously, and throws in subjects such as domestic violence, racism and politics, but when the musical backing is this over-polished and ultimately mundane, it’s hard to care what he’s singing about.

When it good, Music From Another Dimension! captures Aerosmith in all their shiny, glittering glory.... However, at over an hour in length, the party begins to sag after a while. [3 Nov 2012, p.52]

On tracks like Can't Knock The Hustle, Piece Of Cake and High As A Kite, the smartness and deceptive simplicity is lost under a wash of electronic beats and un-catchy melodies. ... They sound boring. [23 Feb 2019, p.54]

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]

New singer Jasen Moreno has an adequate bark, but the songs themselves are the problem. [30 Mar 2013, p.54]

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

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]

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]

This is unashamed brooding, biker rock. [28 Jul 2012, p.54]

Siren Charms is decent enough, but it's so by-the-numbers it could have been written on a calculator. [6 Sep 2014, p.54]

Atreyu’s act of streamlining has sanded many of their edges clean off, leading to moments that sound like they’ve been made by anyone but the actual authors.

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

These inoffensive songs will take up almost none of your mind's capacity for thought or pleasure. [12 Mar 2016, p.53]

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

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]

It seems Punk Goes Pop has finally run its course. [22 Nov 2014, p.51]

While they may have grown up, Good Charlotte have clearly not lost sight of who they are. Perhaps most importantly, though, they still know where they're going. [30 Oct 2010, p.50]

There's enough gritty social commentary and songwriting class amid the occasional cheese to suggest that, on the long road to credibility, Bon Jovi are finally more than halfway there. [9 Mar 2013, p.52]

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]

Too many other songs fall victim to the eternal curse of the remix album: either going too far or not far enough. [26 Oct 2013, p.52]

Woeful radio-rock mess. ... On-point production work prevents Screamer from being an unmitigated disaster, but songwise it's as deep as a puddle. [19 Oct 2019, p.55]

It's a distinctly mixed bag. [2 May 2015, p.52

The resulting tracks are notably more upbeat than you might expect from a band so normally noted for their sad-lad overtones. [10 Nov 2018, p.55]

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]

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

It's too forgettable to be offensive. [23 Nov 2013, p.53]

America is an odd album, one that requires patience to unlock. [7 Apr 2018, p.54]

Sadly, Sum 41 spread the good stuff far too thin over an ambitious but not always successful 15 songs, and, to paraphrase an old title of theirs, there's too much filler and not enough killer material to truly convince. [26 Mar 2011, p.52]

Despite the myth that Anvil simply can't make a decent song, Hope In Hell is actually good. [18 May 2013, p.53]

Automatic is part boom, part bust. [8 Aug 2015, p.50]

For its first half, Life, Love & Hope plays to Boston's strengths.... Sadly, from the insipid If You Were In Love onwards, the album loses its way catastrophically. [7 Dec 2013, p.53]

In truth this is pale goth rock crap. [5 Nov 2011, p.52]

A record that's at times so flat. [13 May 2017, p.50]

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

8 isn't terrible, but it is boring, which is much worse. [13 May 2017, p.51]

This is more Beige Flag--and would have been more aptly titled Why... [30 Nov 2013, p.54]

Most of Super Collider feels half-hearted and rushed. [1 Jun 2013, p53]

Boys Like Girls have crafted a record simple and effective enough for mainstream ears. It's just a shame that absolutely no punk 101 is required. [8 Dec 2012, p.52]

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

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

Their most confident collection yet, full of persuasive rock songs in which Taylor, her voice punchily prominent in the mix, holds court on a variety of important topics.