Taken individually, both NULL and VOID are brilliant albums from a collective who understand music’s role as a vessel for emotional articulacy. Put them together, and they are creatively anything but their combined title, while also somehow perfectly expressing a feeling of being both.

They’re still the same fiercely independent band that can run rings around an oddball time signature, just now they’re trusting their chemistry and melodic instincts to take them in any direction they wish – and the results kick ass.

If you're expecting an album full of immediate anthems like Monkey Wrench and All My Life, dig out their Greatest Hits. Otherwise, bask in this hour of masterful '70s-flavoured jams. [9 Sep 2017, p.50]

This album announces IDLES as one of the most exhilarating and necessary punk bands of right now. [8 Sep 2018, p.53]

It makes for an impressive debut that sees Sleepwave unapologetically aiming for the sky. [27 Sep 2014, p.54]

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

The heaviest moments are breathtakingly aggressive. [26 Oct 2013, p.55]

It's apparent that Jacob's half is largely concerned with the separation anxiety of life on the road. ... Brendan Lukens was dealing with mental health and addiction issues in the run up to this album. This sudden jolt to a jerkier, more angular alt.rock style reflects that. [14 May 2016, p.51]

It may not appeal beyond their current fanbase, but it cements The Story So Far's position near the front of the pop-punk pack. [16 May 2015, p.53]

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

A record of grandstanding musical ambition. [18 Jul 2015, p.52]

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

There's nothing pleasant about this in any way, shape or form, basically. Yeah, Dead In The Dirt are that good. [10 Aug 2013, p.54]

This fourth LP is a nostalgia-tinted treat. [27 Sep 2014, p.54]

Bad Religion are still capable of holding on to their defiantly secular edge. [9 Nov 2013, p.53]

Foxing, however, just keep getting better. Who knows what they’ll sound like by the time the next emo reboot kicks in. But, for now, Draw Down The Moon makes them a champion in their own field.

You've never heard anything quite like this before, because, well, there's never been anything quite like Issues before. [22 Feb 2014, p.52]

This one's a reduction of their dense, danceable punk rock into two main groups: lairy and louche. [9 Sep 2017, p.52]

ABOMINATION is frequently a colourful, outlandish listen, bold in scope and teeming with ingenious lines.

30 Seconds to Mars' latest collection is not cloying, expansive yet often economical, approachable without being familiar. [11 May 2013, p.52]

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

This is pure Slayer through and through. [12 Sep 2015, p.51]

Like a poison ice cream, MCS are once again delicious, but deadly. [26 Sep 2015, p.52]

The Joy Formidable still roar. In fact, on Hitch, they sound more like themselves than ever before. [26 Mar 2016, p.52]

They deliver an eclectic thrashterclass here. [25 May 2013, p.54]

Spitting Fire surges, grunts. sweats, spills your beer and pukes--an exact replica of being in a High On Fire crowd. [6 Jul 2013, p.54]

This may be the year's most melodically ambitious release. [26 Sep 2015, p.52]

Despite throwing some creative curveballs into the mix, Vale feels very much like the rue follow-up to Wretched And Divine, and sees Black Veil Brides writing their own myth once more. [13 Jan 2018, p.50]

Patch The Sky continues a creative roll that's rarely slowed. [26 Mar 2016, p.52]

Welcome back, Four Year Strong. [6 Jun 2014, p.51]

Should be regarded as perhaps their finest album yet. [14 Jan 2017, p.51]

It could slot into the soundtrack of anyone’s life, it has that sort of everyman, indie movie quality. But it’s for him first, and it’s an incredibly pure distillation of who Finn is when he’s not on camera.

This is a record just as colourful as its creator’s hair (which is handy). And while rapping about Bill Gates, Elon Musk, The Office’s Michael Scott and members of One Direction in closer See You In The Future might prove one step too far for some, for everyone else it’s all just a part of the ride. Indeed, this is very weird shit. But it rules.

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

Sometimes angry, regularly ferocious, occasionally beautiful. [8 Oct 2016, p.53]

That first album wasn't a one-off, and here The Temperance Movement have once again proved themselves masters of their craft. [2 Jan 2016, p.52]

Senjutsu is simultaneously more diverse than its predecessor but somehow manages to concentrate its punches. It’s the sound of a band that continues to strive when it’s already honed its craft to perfection.

It beautifully illustrates that bigness isn't always about loudness. [9 Mar 2013, p.52]

Confidently delivered and teeming with ideas, it flies by as much because of its urgency as its cohesion.

PRUDE is an album whose life-affirming spirit is unrelenting throughout its 10 tracks, which fly by in sub-30-minute blast of punk fury. Whether you’re on the lookout for heart-on-sleeve punk, hectic hardcore mayhem or just some pure sonic fun, Drug Church’s latest offering is a real must-hear.

(Nasty) business as usual, then, from Anaal Nathrakh. [13 Oct 2012, p.54]

The result is jaw-dropping. [12 Jan 2013, p.52]

Murderous fantasy-fulfillment, it may be. But nobody does it better. [25 Mar 2017, p.50]

Uninterested in taking over the airwaves or lighting up the charts, it is art at its unapologetically visceral peak. More than that, it’s vitriolic fresh proof that absolutely no band is more vital, and that maybe we really would be better burning it all to the ground.

Despite the album name, there's not a not or part lacking with From Indian Lakes. [4 Oct 2014, p.53]

This is still a challenging listen that churns and rages exactly where it needs to. [30 May 2015, p.52]

Stories unfurl with an infectious nerdiness that undulates between giddy Boys’ Own exuberance and a museum curator’s painstaking attention to detail. [20 Jul 2019, p.57]

It’s testament to how thrilling Rivers Of Heresy is that by the time you reach at closing track The Looming, released, somewhat boldly, as the first single from the album, that its impact hasn’t been lessened.

The pairing makes more and more sense everytime you listen to it, perfectly rounding off 37 minutes of bubbling, stoned fuzz. [3 Feb 2018, p.52]

You'd listen to their brilliant third album and realise that they've beaten you to it (making a classic rock record). [21 Aug 2010, p.51]

The solos are absolutely enormous and are some of the most interesting song writing that they’ve produced to date.

Dear has generated a resurrection, or at least a strengthening of their life force; its creation inspired Boris to continue, turning what was supposed to be a goodbye into a forceful restating of this remarkable band's existence. [1 Jul 2017, p.50]

Grown men revisiting their youthful hijinks should be a terrible idea or, to borrow an FNM title, a midlife crisis. Instead, this record is an absolute rager, testament to both the original material and the present-day dedication of its lunatic creators.

Too late to be the sound of the summer, Beach Slang will instead warm your hearts all winter--and far beyond. [31 Oct 2015, p.54]

Depth, emotion and spirit seem to infuse everything. [20 Oct 2012, p.52]

Swirling, heady and claustrophobic at times, this is well worth further investigation. [21 Aug 2010, p.51]

Truly, so confident and perfectly measured are Royal Blood here that, while definitely focused on the stars, they sound like they never noticed the gutter was there in the first place. It’s rock’n’roll lit up by a disco ball.

Their rebellious spirit is intertwined with a sense of total, inspiring self-love and in creating that feeling of empowerment, Humble As The Sun feels revolutionary in a fresh new way.

Deficiencies are rare. When Never Let Me Go calls time on its 13 songs with the exquisitely constructed Fix Yourself, it does so in a manner befitting an album that is overwhelmingly a success.

They continue to blast out their post-punk hymns to the end of the world with a wild-eyed mania that's genuinely scary. [31 Oct 2015, p.54]

This is classic ATG with freshness and vigour to spare. [25 Oct 2014, p.54]

Songs that brood on record become grand and celebratory live and that's what captured here. [21 Aug 2010, p.52]

Think Jimmy eat World's last two albums and you'll get the general gist; an aching yet catchy anti-pop that tugs at the heartstrings while simultaneously making you want to dance. [12 Mar 2011, p.52]

As far as sludgy, frenzied noise rock is concerned, there are few who do it better than Melvins, and Working With God is tangible proof.

Only Iron Maiden know if this is their last hurrah. But if it is, they're going out the same way they came in: fearless, adventurous, and with a record that'll still bowl you over in a decade's time. [7 Aug 2010, p.50]

Some of the hookiest hooks and riffiest riff in his catalogue. [30 Apr 2016, p.67]

In the resultant dizzying whirl of kaleidoscopic guitars and life moving at 100 miles a minute, Culture Abuse sound right at home. [16 Jun 2018, p.58]

The rock'n'roll spirit is just as potent as the kind you get from a bottle in a sleazy LA watering hole. [19 Sep 2015, p.52]

They exude so much confidence, you wouldn't be surprised if they ran for president next year. [6 Jun 2015, p.52]

There's a lot going on, but once again Opeth have crafted something special here. [24 Sep 2016, p.51]

There's a quivering blues element to the sludgy stomp of Whether Terrified Or Unafraid, while elsewhere they twist the lo-fi fuzz into jarring alt.rock shapes, as Josh continues to serve up the deliciously unexpected. [10 Jun 2017, p.52]

Nightmare marks the point which the Huntington Beach crew put away childish things and became men. [24 Jul 2010, p.50]

The result is a superb, invigorated record that invites you to wake up, as they have done, in a brave, bold and beautiful new world.

What YONAKA have made here is one of 2019’s best breakthrough rock albums. Put simply, Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow is the birth of a new band of rock stars. [25 may 2019, p.54]

It may have taken five years and three albums, but Circa Survive are finally living up to their potential, and Blue Sky Noise might just signal the start of something really interesting. [24 Jul 2010, p.51]

While only the heads-down opener King Of Rome is presented in a radio-friendly three-minute format, there is much here that could lure newcomers into the twisted soundworld of the Melvins – as long as they don’t expect the next record to sound much like this one.

A set of excellent songs. It’s a cohesive, largely understated collection, too.

This sharper, steelier focus simply ensures that every aural blow is fatal. [24 May 2014, p.54]

While pulling no punches in discussing anxiety or uncertainty, their sparky indie punk still evokes sunny days and exhilarating nights. [16 Sep 2017, p.52]

It's a step forward lyrically and also musically. [29 Oct 2016, p.53]

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]

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]

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]

High Crimes is both energetic and spontaneous. It sounds like its members had a ball making it, and that sense of unconstrained fun and creativity bleed through it brilliantly. [4 May 20129, p.53]

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

Chemical Miracle is as good as chlorine smell. [15 Oct 2016, p.52]

An epic adventure that is, in every single way, truly astonishing indeed. [16 Jan 2016, p.51]

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]

Not every single one of these 16 tracks is totally essentially considering their already-enormous discography, but anyone who wants less Every Time I Die is quite simply a fool – especially when the band are on such blistering form as they are here.

The Maine sound like a band who've finally found their happy place. [8 Jun 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.

It's an epic journey, and one that both requires and repays immersion and patience. [14 Nov 2015, p.53]

While these songs may lack the same kind of energetic rage that defined the band in their early years, they're still a formidable way of exposing truths and holding the powers that be to account. [4 May 2019, p.55]

As an example of a band whose explosive energies are captured, rather than recorded, this is strong work. [1 Jun 2019, p.55]

Forming part of their 20th anniversary celebrations this year, this brilliant 18-track compilation may be missing some huge hits, but that's not to say that it doesn't hit home. Hard. [22 Jan 2011, p.51]

The 34-year-old may not quite have reached nirvana just yet, but in his personal quest for enlightenment he’s never sounded more optimistic about life’s possibilities. [26 Apr 2019, p.53]

Like Sabbath on an especially mellow day. [14 Nov 2015, p.52]

American Slang stands on its own two feet with eyes fixed on new horizons, its chief architect focused less on history, more on his story, as he tries to make sense of new realities after his world has been turned upside down. [12 Jun 2010, p.50]