It's an amalgamation of what they've done before but without the rapping, or hardcore, and with the pop dial turned to 11. [15 Apr 2017, p.51]

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

A record that's powered in equal parts by defiance and ambition. [18 Mar 2017, p.52]

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

Snarling, furious, smart, more please, Boss Hog. More. [1 Apr 2017, p.53]

A mature, provocative and at times genuinely beautiful piece of work. [1 Apr 2017, p.50]

It's a record with an electric crackle, a halogen glow. [25 Feb 2017, p.52]

If You're looking for something with ambition, swagger and feel-good power, Different Creatures is your beast. [25 Mar 2017, p.52]

They're never going to be the heaviest band in the world, but Minus The bear are at their strongest when they threaten to get their claws out. [25 Mar 2017, p.52]

[A] glorious masterpiece. [11 Mar 2017, p.50]

Millport is a welcome postcard from a busman's holiday taken by a fine songwriter. [11 Mar 2017, p.52]

Some of the best songs [Obituary] have penned, nearly 33 years after their inception. [18 Mar 2017, p.52]

The haze delivers both sleazy rock'n'roll and sugary glam-pop, with the band putting equal dedication into their myriad components to create a joyous whole. [18 Mar 2017, p.53]

It's a beautiful, bruised patchwork: all fragile optimism and ebbing regret. [18 Mar 2017, p.53]

It is by turns beautiful and brash, driven and divine. [18 Mar 2017, p.50]

Danko Jones has plainly not lost his mojo. [11 Mar 2017, p.52]

While the album does lose focus at times, loosening its initial invigorating grip, the jovial bounce of Let's All Go To Hades is a surefire live hit when you've had a few pints. [11 Feb 2017, p.52]

Impressions is thrumming with big ideas, bigger choruses and is imbued with the pearly wisdom learned from rolling with life's punches. [4 Mar 2017, p.53]

All Them Witches have conjured fresh landmarks all their own. [18 Feb 2017, p.52]

Easily besting 2013's Kingdom Of Conspiracy, this is dark and ugly death metal for ugly minds. [25 Feb 2017, p.52]

The Incessant is an enraged punk album with the occasional sombre stupor slinked within. [18 Feb 2017, p.54]

Full of weirdness and with groove to spare, this is a fascinating collection. [25 Feb 2017, p.53]

Alive with the freshness and vitality of rebirth, they've delivered 11 tracks that manage to bridge the vast airiness of their mid-'00s heyday and the poppy progression of here and now. [25 Feb 2017, p.52]

This may be the most punk record of 2017: possessing brains, balls and bags of tunes. [4 Feb 2017, p.51]

This is a brave, bold and ambitious album, and the finest of Lower Than Atlantis' career so far. [4 Feb 2017, p.50]

Aside from brief moments in songs such as Satellites and Why Can't We Do It Again, the best thing about The Trigger Complex is its title. [11 Feb 2017, p.52]

It would be remiss not to point out that Iron Reagan are retreading familiar ground, but it would be churlish not to recognise that they do so with ferocious relish. [4 Feb 2017, p.52]

This is no tribute, however, just a mighty fine hard-rock album. [4 Feb 2017, p.52]

Too often, each song's relentless march toward the kind of chorus you can imagine providing the soundtrack for a bevy of beautiful, suburban cheerleaders is too much to take. [4 Feb 2017, p.52]

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

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

[An] excitable, artistically emphatic album. [28 Jan 2017, p.51]

Hardcore devotees can rest assured that Kreator have shed little of their original skin. [28 Jan 2017, p.52]

A constantly-evolving monster of a record. [21 Jan 2017, p.52]

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

Forever is sufficiently overloaded with both information and mystique to keep you coming back, well, forever. [28 Jan 2017, p.50]

Here, he's finally harnessed the fury coursing through his foundation, channeling and unleashing it with streamlined precision. [28 Jan 2017, p.48]

The music remains a force to be reckoned with. [7 Jan 2017, p.54]

You better get ready to start your "Best Albums of 2017" list--a serious contender has arrived. [7 Jan 2017, p.52]

Throughout, NIN strike a masterful balance between drilling industrial assaults and eerie ambience. [14 Jan 2017, p.52]

There's a monochrome coolness to everything and a slick, minimal production. There's a newfound calmness and thoughtfulness noticed in the band's songwriting. [14 Jan 2017, p.50]

It's the essential elegy of everything that was and a moving reminder of all that could have been. [26 Nov 2016, p.53]

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

Badmotorfinger is a masterclass in amplification, intelligence and artistic chutzpah. [3 Dec 2016, p.52]

Some songs float by without leaving much of a mark, but Balance And Composure's dedication to reinvention should be lauded. [5 Nov 2016, p.52]

A very impressive album. [26 Nov 2016, p.51]

It doesn't eclipse any of its members' day-job bands, but Surveillance is worth scoping out. [26 Nov 2016, p.52]

A dozen svelte and self-assured songs that are ear-catching in terms of being both highly accessible while being imaginatively arranged. [3 Dec 2016, p.53]

A grandiose and ambitious album. [5 Nov 2016, p.50]

It's hard to shake the feeling that this is music more learned than lived. [12 Nov 2016, p.52]

Once again, Arctic Thunder sees Darkthrone doing something different, without doing much different than usual. [22 Oct 2016, p.69]

There's no softness or subtlety here. Just venom-tipped steel. [29 Oct 2016, p.52]

The popping candy melodies remain firmly in place, but this new-look outfit are edgier, gobbier and endearingly post-adolescent. [30 Jan 2016, p.51]

This is Metallica galvanised, refreshed, refocused and rediscovering themselves. Best thing they've done since The Black album? Yep. [5 Nov 2016, p.48]

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]

He's reached a new creative peak. [29 Oct 2016, p.50]

It's a soft, frail album Jimmy Eat World have here, but one that hits right in the feels. Hard. [29 Oct 2016, p.51]

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

Crucially, it captures some of the magic of their debut, and will satiate those who've waited so patiently. [22 Oct 20163, p.68]

Korn haven't reinvented their own here, but it's still a worthy addition to their canon. [22 Oct 20163, p.67]

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

Mostly, though, Red Fang rock, with pile-driving riffs and monstrous grooves that you can't simply laugh off. [15 Oct 2016, p.53]

It's bold, atmospheric and destined to play havoc with the concept of playlists. [24 Sep 2016, p.52]

Maintaining their business-as-usual ethic it's nonstop Americana-a-go-go. [15 Oct 2016, p.52]

It finds them rocking even harder than usual. [1 Oct 2016, p.51]

It's execution is what makes it Sum 41's finest offering to date. [15 Oct 2016, p.50]

It's reliably puzzling and brain-meltingly good. [15 Oct 2016, p.52]

Kodama is one of 2016's most arresting releases. [15 Oct 2016, p.53]

Naturally, those married to traditional song structures need not apply, but if you fancy feeling like your brains in a pinball machine, then Mothership will take you out of this world. [15 Oct 2016, p.52]

When an album imbued with the spirit of heroism, the opening track has to boldly throw down the gauntlet. Job done. [15 Oct 2016, p.51]

Their debut has hooks sharper than new scissors. [10 Sep 2016, p.52]

As Limerent Death gives you a one-two, you realise this will be the most chaotic funeral you've ever attended. [8 Oct 2016, p.51]

This is NOFX at their leanest, and it absolutely rips. [8 Oct 2016, p.52]

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

A supergroup that lives up to the hype. [1 Oct 2016, p.52]

Classically Yellowcard in sound, all violins and driving drum rolls, it's a fitting tribute to their two decades on the job. [1 Oct 2016, p.52]

The 12 songs that comprise the svelte but satiating Revolution Radio are among the finest to which Green Day Have put their name. [1 Oct 2016, p.50]

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]

Two albums into their 21st century reunion, and the unhinged genius of early albums Surfer Rosa and Doolittle is largely lacking, replaced by the not unpleasant sound of old friends having a blast. [8 Oct 2016, p.52]

A record that's intelligent with its music, but played with an explosive level of nastiness that sounds like they'd burn your house down if you crossed them. [17 Sep 2016, p.52]

Occasionally, they can get bogged-down in their particularly scuzzy groove, but for those who prefer their duos nasty inside and out, this is a wonderful caterwaul to get lost in. [24 Sep 2016, p.52]

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

While increased musical sophistication doesn't necessarily tell you anything about the people making the music, and insightful lyrics probably won't stop you in your tracks in a mosh-pit, if you nail both you've got an album that will explode and, more importantly, endure. Here, Every Time I Die have made the perfect example of such an album. [17 Sep 2016, p.48]

Their intensity remains undimmed on Fires Within Fires, a five-song journey into the Oakland collective's commanding vision. [17 Sep 2016, p.52]

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]

Surging with reckless punk spirit and swooning romanticism, there's no fear of Beach Slang losing momentum after break-up rumours earlier this year. You might consider the album title ironic since the trio are far on the other side of 19, but perhaps that's its beauty. [24 Sep 2016, p.52]

For all its spells when it's thick with vitality and feeling, it rarely breaks free of being anything more than a good record, never an exceptional one. [24 Sep 2016. p.50]

While it's true that their [Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman] reunion on Braver Than We Are could never change the world like Bat Out Of Hell and Bat Out Of Hell II, it is a bewilderingly brilliant album. [17 Sep 2016, p.53]

It's a record that feels truly alive, filled with sorrow, guilt, selflessness and love. [17 Sep 2016, p.52]

Once again, "epic" is the name of Mr. Townsend's game. [27 Aug 2016, p.51]

The Ocala quintet's heaviest record since 2007's For Those Who Have Heart. [27 Aug 2016, p.50

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

Their seventh record might just be their most melodically expansive yet. [27 Aug 2016, p.52]

For all the record's big riffs and bravado, there's plenty regarding matters of the heart, from the heart. [10 Sep 2016, p.50]

Their diverse tunes are rough and smooth in all the right places. [20 Aug 2016, p.68]

If you're kind of person who needs some wallop in your music, Your Wilderness is probably not for you. However, if you're partial to ethereal music so gentle it feels like it might break if you pay too much attention to it, then prepare to fall in love. [20 Aug 2016, p.68]

This is what Blue Pills do best, daring to imagine what it would have been like if Aretha Franklin fronted Deep Purple in a cosmic blur of crackling fuzz and feel-good soul. [20 Aug 2016, p.67]

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