It broadens and deepens the story that began with that album [Sex, Death & The Infinite Void], acting as a requiem to the alien character of Roe. ... It’s simply eight tracks of lovely, rousing rock opera. Whether you’re after one, the other, or both, you’re sure to be left more than satisfied.

Done largely live in the studio, together, looking at each other, the already taut LOG energy thrusts even harder.

Sixteen albums in, that they continue to surprise and create as much as they do is to be celebrated on its own. That it represents their best work in a decade is the triumph of a genuinely magnificent band.

Silver Age is a fun ride, then, but it won't warrant racing back for any tine soon. [6 Oct 2012, p.53]

There’s nothing on here quite as catchy as Tiny from Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not, but that may well be because this is a more consistent effort, an album full of highlights that reminds us that being ​‘lovely’ and ​‘loud’ aren’t mutually exclusive qualities, while furthering one of the most consistent catalogues in rock.

A record packed with starry-eyed guitars, almost as if they were being beamed back down from the International Space Station. [24 Sep 2016, p.53]

Halsey’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is an album best served whole. Sure, it’s packing some infectious, radio-ready choruses, but there is so much more to unpack, with each listen peeling back layers of heartache but also dexterity and adventure, and much-needed sense of danger that their peers are lacking.

This time out, there is greater maturity in every note. Bea’s trademark indie-folk stylings haven’t been left behind. If anything, they eclipse her grungier tendencies this time out. But on songs like the outstanding Ever Seen and Tie My Shoes there’s less lo-fi fragility and more a strident, sunbeaten warmth akin to peak Phoebe Bridgers or even latter-day Tay Tay herself.

Ultimately, though, this is a record with the kind of undeniable quality that will captivate fresh-faced newcomers just as much as weathered veterans.

This reminds us how life-affirming their music can still be. [6 Aug 2016, p.53]

Aaron and mewithoutYou have authored what's possibly their best album. [25 Jul 2015, p.52]

Yet while this album rails against the world our plutocratic/oligarchic overlords have created for the rest of us, it also displays a vulnerability that’s rare in hardcore and post-hardcore.

An overwhelming addition to a back catalogue not lacking in transcendental power, Purge finds Justin channelling distress and disgust into music that hits both body and soul, creating something wonderful out of horror and pain. This really is a perfectly-titled album.

It’s perhaps not as instantaneous as the debut, as vile as Iowa or as catchy as Vol. 3, but it offers depth, discomfort and danger to those willing to dive into the recesses of The Nine’s collective consciousness.

It's vibrant and soulful, but undercut with a darkness that's hinted just enough to haunt these songs. [28 Jun 2014, p.54]

After listening to Ascent, you'll be hard-pressed to locate a better batch of mesmerising mind-expanding jams this year. [25 Aug 2012, p.54]

A superior collection from a genuinely superior group. [27 Jul 2019, p.56]

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.

Despite the band stretching their boundaries wider than ever before and employing a kitchen-sink approach to experimentation, this is the most Enter Shikari sounding record the band have made to date.

Twenty One Pilots prove you don't always need guitars to have a good time. [16 May 2015, p.54]

The beauty of Puscifer is that they can be taken any way you like depending on how you look at them. It is more than enough that the music on Existential Reckoning is superb. But should you attempt to get under the skin and solve the puzzles within, there are vast riches to be had.

While not quite the box of delights Garbage shook at us last time, there’s persistent allure in the mating of cavernous soundscapes with Shirley’s penetratingly icy vocals.

It’s Pearl Jam’s most incensed album since 2006. It’s their most musically inventive since 1998. And, by virtue of its themes, it is their most gravely needed of their entire career. It is, in short, a triumph.

Amid all the feedback and echoes here, there's something wonderfully ominous about Locrain's music. [29 Jun 2013, p.54]

The fiery swagger and coursing vitriol of these, Jonathan's final recordings, now stand as monuments. [23 Jan 2016, p.52]

A band finding new ways to be magnificent so far into their career. [10 Jun 2017, p.52]

As a QOTSA album, In Times New Roman… is dark and disorientating; for Joshua Homme, it feels like a wholly necessary outpouring of creative catharsis.

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.

A strange, unruly offering. The momentous, squalling dissonance of the curtain-raising Reducer seems to signpost where they’re going, but then they spin off into a twisted, eight-track labyrinth.

This is a painstakingly composed work of art--and an absolute masterpiece at that. [15 Jul 2017, p.50]

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

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]

This is Earth in their purest form. ... This album is also a perfect introduction to Earth for curious neophytes. [25 May 2019, p.55]

Calm and collected when it needs to be but by no means lacking in heart and passion, this album is a fine collection of songs by an artist intent on forging her own path.

Japandroids' ability to move the listener remains as powerful as ever. [4 Feb 2017, p.51]

Ultimately, though, Krüller is best experienced not in its individual segments but as an overwhelming whole. The meld of muscle and mechanisation still demands that listeners hand themselves over entirely. So stay plugged in through the epic title-track’s spiral down into an inevitable acid ending and you’ll be haunted by the ghosts in this machine.

The record flows effortlessly from disco to all-out rock ballad, and it ends with a stunningly atmospheric climax only they can pull off. [6 May 2017, p.52]

This is not a time-weathered, diluted imitation of Faith No More. This, ladies and gents, is still "The Real Thing." [9 May 2015, p.52]

So Much (For) Stardust does have a foot in a past FOB, but where they're taking you is somewhere you weren't expecting, and it's equally welcome. Just as importantly, they sound like Fall Out Boy again.

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

Bangers like Die By The Sword and Hole In The Head share not only the four syllable song titles of the Balls To The Wall/Fast As A Shark Days; they're chock-full of those classics' runaway riffage, searing solos and tooth-cracking attitude, too. [5 Aug 2017, p.52]

A deliberate and delightful mess of punk and rock'n'roll out to deliver a black eye, Master Volume ends with the almost beautiful strains of Evil Side which buzz with an infectious, if troubled, vitality. But rather than falling apart, The Dirty Nil are simply solid. [15 Sep 2018, p.55]

Much of the album is minimalist in its approach, allowing Jonas Renkse’s vocals to guide the way against a kaleidoscopic soundscape of soft melodies that feel almost ethereal.

Just as Failure love to keep you on the edge of your seat musically, they also keep you guessing with their lyrics. Confounding, absorbing lines are stockpiled everywhere.

It's initially odd that the songs lack the immediacy the band are known for, but once the new-found intricacies reveal themselves and the lengthier structures click, the pay-off is huge. [8 Oct 2016, p.52]

Standards is a total success. [30 Apr 2016, p.68]

Here you're thrilled by how refreshingly streamlined these songs are from the off. [20 Jan 2018, p.50]

The music itself is minimalist, but still manages to conjure an intense darkness, aided by the haunting drawl of guitarist Reid Bateh. [15 Feb 2020, p.55]

Neither Boris nor Merzbow are particularly known for their music being concise, and of course this opus is no exception — clocking in at almost 90 minutes it takes its sweet time making its point. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as they unhurriedly pick apart their previous material it provides fresh perspective and an opportunity to rediscover.

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

It's been a hell of a ride, one where the journey is just as much fun as reaching the journey. [12 Mar 2016, p.51]

It's a fuzzed-out, heavy-arsed, thoroughly soulful blast of glorious rock thunder that salutes the past with one arm, while bringing in an ultra-cool identity of Rival Sons' own with the other. [9 Feb 2019, p.55]

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

It perhaps didn’t have to be so lengthy, especially when it’s made dense by a surplus of delicate ballads that sound just a tad too similar. However, its concept, eloquence and even just its sheer emotional weight all serve to make this record special nonetheless, both for its quality and as a document of Halsey’s survival.

Taken on its own merits, this is still a stunning album from a band operating at the peak of their powers. [18 May 2013, 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.

There are few surprises on Beast but it is another superbly realised slab of dynamically raging noise. [12 Feb 2011, p.50]

Violence Unimagined sounds exactly as you imagine it will, but still surprises in just how much Cannibal Corpse have left in the tank.

It's a deceptively simple formula, but one that Torche continue to twist into intriguing and utterly addictive shapes. [31 Jan 2015, p.54]

This is surely one of the year’s most important records.

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]

Shame is a weighty slab of industrial punk that is effectively the soundtrack to a tortured soul mentally coming apart. Reinventing a core element of themselves, Uniform present a side they have previously kept boiling angrily under a darkened surface.

The Sleeping have finally shaken off the emo scene shackles and explored their personal sonic palettes. [02 Oct 2010, p.52]

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]

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]

This is an excellent ensemble of songs. [30 Aug 2014, p.50]

For an album about broken faith, this should convert a lot of new listeners. [29 Aug 2015, p.52]

A welcome and overdue return. [18 May 2019, p.55]

It’s interesting to hear Candy embracing their experimental side and, for anyone in any doubt, their industrial tinged noise is every bit as horrible as their hardcore – a wonderful spectrum that ranges from explosive anger to sinister brooding.

Tomorrow Never Comes is more of a delight than really it has any right to be. Certainly, it’s a good deal more compelling than any of its authors’ more recent albums.

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.

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.

Power Up is a reminder that this music has a power that belies its apparent simplicity (and here do not mistake this for being easy – go stand in a practice room and listen to how many drummers can’t do the ’DC beat properly). The context and tragic shadow from which it comes and the world into which it arrives makes its odes to freewheeling good times so very poignant.

You have a record that defies easy categorisation, reminiscent only of the restlessness embodied by outfits like Liars. If their music feels trippy and amorphous, their lyrical focus is often surprisingly specific.

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

The dreamy Cali-sound is easy to get lost in, but Seahaven takes you somewhere you won't actually mind being stranded. [22 Mar 2014, p.53]

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

The band's ninth full-length, is every bit the monster it should be and easily stands alongside their best work. [12 Feb 2011, p.51]

As always, the uninitiated need not apply. For the rest of us, Goatwhore are a filthy feast. [12 Jul 2014, p.53]

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

At the point where most bands start to slow down, Pissed Jeans have hit the accelerator.

They're at their best when they're at their harshest, with the grindcore attacks of Saintpeelers and Sovereign Through The Pines proving as exciting as this stuff gets. [12 Mar 2011, p.52]

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]

Permanence is a brave, bold step into a new beginning. [19 Sep 2015, p.51]

This album is polished indie-punk at its near best. [28 Jan 2017, p.52]

They've taken things into a place where that barbed-wire charm takes a backseat to sounding absolutely enormous. [4 Jun 2016, p.53]

Amends is a portrait of the artist as a young man, offering fans the chance to time travel and spend time with an old friend. It’s also the origin of Chester Bennington as a musician and is therefore an essential, rewarding and emotional listening for anyone who is a fan of his work.

You can’t help but feel that some creative tension and idea-bouncing in there might have led to some more invention and exploration in the album’s midsection. Nevertheless, though, this is still an impeccably delivered slab of hard rock fun.

Thirty years on from the release of their earth-jolting, trouble-divining self-titled debut, Killing Joke show no signs of either mellowing or cracking a smile. [Sept. 25, 2010, p. 51]

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]

Counterparts have delivered one for the heart here, not the head. [20 Jul 2013, p.54]

Corpse Flower is an album for completists. [15 Sep 2019, p.55]

It jabs with style, and demonstrates that, far from running out of ideas, this band remain intent on staying at the cutting edge of modern British rock.

The end result is maybe not as coherent as Race The Night, but it’s every bit as fun. Almost 30 years since Ash named their debut album 1977, after the year that Star Wars was released, the Force is still strong with these ones.

Truthfulness and honesty [are] inherent throughout this fantastic record. [14 Sep 2019, p.55]

Finally adding a bassists to PD's ranks has robbed them of some of their personality. [8 Sep 2018, p.53]

What saves these confessions from self-loathing is how Diet Cig dance the line between serious and funny wonderfully. [8 May 2017, p.66]

Ultimately, any record which ends with a cover of cult anarcho-surrealists Rudimentary Peni can’t fail to convince in its sincere respect for its predecessors and inspirations.