Expect this to crop up on more than a few album-of-the-year lists. [4 Jun 2016, p.52]

Cult Of Luna’s evolution shows no signs of slowing down. The Long Road North is another welcome addition on their quest to push sonic boundaries and is one of their hardest hitting releases yet.

Sempiternal sounds like a record that wants the world--that's all of it, not just the bits where longhairs dwell--which is refreshing for a metal record in 2013. [30 Mar 2013, p.52]

Anguished and uncomfortable as it may be, Chip King and Lee Buford have constructed a brutalist masterpiece, here.

Honor Found In Decay is another milestone in a catalogue which consists of nothing but milestones. [3 Nov 2012, p.53]

Turn Up That Dial won’t dethrone 2005’s career-defining The Warrior’s Code, but it’s a welcome hug from a collective who are, as ever, the best of men.

Iron Balls Of Steel ultimately raises eyebrows more often than it does fists. [14 Jan 2012, p.51]

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]

Tantalisingly, this record also feels like the next building-block in a potentially genre-defining body of work. As much as we can’t wait for 100,000 gecs, however, there’s a mountain of fun to be had before we get there.

An album that cannot and will not stand still, or be quiet, or remain one thing for very long. In a world where many cushion themselves from ills with complacency, it’s good to have a record that’s ready to shake (and shit) people up.

Heavy Pendulum is truly a remarkable record, not only for its quality but also because it represents Cave In’s ability to persevere after enduring so much trauma. It’s the work of a wholly rejuvenated and imaginative group.

Truly, Chelsea Wolfe has hit upon something very heavy here--something that'll haunt your nightmares long after it ends. [7 Oct 2017, p.53]

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

In allowing their imaginations to run riot in a gloriously self-indulgent way, they've made a record possessed of an extremity all of its own. [5 May 2012, p.53]

Luc remains an expert in experimental extremity, with Forgotten Arrows, reminding us that Gorguts were trawling prog-death waters long before Gojira. [17 Aug 2013, p.54]

Set It Off have created their own sub-genre in an oversubscribed pop-rock scene and absolutely nailed it. [11 Oct 2014, p.53]

The eclectic sounds of Wolf Alice's debut made them stars, but this sequel finds them doing everything bigger and better. [2 Sep 2017, p.51]

The Proverbial Bellow could almost be all that this chapter comprised and not irk their faithful. The other three tracks deliver too, but were destined to always pale by comparison. [14 Jul 2018, p.55]

From its furious themes to the explosive energy and the livewire sound, you’d be hard pressed to find a band doing anything quite like this right now, and it’s genuinely exciting to think what Nova Twins can achieve with these 10 tracks of pure sonic power in their hands.

Truth Decay is an album that sees You Me At Six grabbing elements from 2014’s Cavalier Youth and 2010’s Hold Me Down. Then it wraps them up into a time capsule of what it means to be a young adult in the ever-difficult 2020s.

Ignore the anodyne song-titles like Versions Of You, Bad Time and Scars. Sonically, we’re right back into the gravel of early-2000s classic From Here To Infirmary and Good Mourning. Guitars slice, grate and gouge like murder weapons. Matt and Dan Andriano’s vocals are loaded with more wry, world-weary bittersweetness than they have been in years.

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.

Processing pain does not mean wallowing in it, of course. The only way out is through. Ultimately, The Bad Fire feels like an acknowledgement of that, burning out neither in scalding catharsis nor cold resignation, but the radiant glow of a future still unwritten.

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.

They're back with a glorious melange of influence that borrows from everywhere but combines to sound like no-one else on earth. [1 Aug 2012, p.54]

This is the most intricate and densely-layered album Tool have yet made, but to use the word like "complex" to describe the counting-in-prime-numbers time signatures of Invincible or digital-only track Legion Inoculant would be lazy in the extreme. ... An album that pushes and challenges its creators and its audiences in new ways, the finer details of which will probably take another 13 years to fully unwrap and appreciate. [24 Aug 2019, p.53]

Thankfully, the band approached this follow-up with exactly the same extravagant, OTT mindset that made Everybody Wants such a riot. [Oct 27 2018, p.53]

Country-fuelled it may be, rather than the expected full-pelt rock, but so open is this letter that it easily succeeds in transcending genres. [1 Jun 2019, p.53]