What sounds beautiful one minute can be unwieldy the next, as everything hazes together. [7 Sep 2013, p.52]

Somebody's Knocking is undoubtedly a labour of love for its creator, and a joy for everybody else. [12 Oct 2019, p.55]

Coming in cold, it’s another Killswitch Engage album – metal that punches and screams with an effectiveness and accuracy of attack that is ingrained from experts in their field doing their thing for a long time. But in knowing the journey of its creation, it gains a character and a level of emotion that would otherwise be absent.

No mere nostalgia trip, S&M2 stands as a tribute both to Metallica’s growing confidence as players and composers, and an absolute vindication of their decision to revisit one of their most inspired creative outings. Within our world, they remain utterly fearless and inarguably peerless.

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]

Musically, TANGK finds IDLES’ style rejuvenated, with drum patterns drawing from soul, techno and hip hop. The sparse beats and ominous background hums of POP POP POP are reminiscent of Radiohead’s Kid A.

A band who've proven that 21st century thrashers can give their predecessors a run for their money. [14 Apr 2012, p.54]

Wolf Alice have a great album in them, it's just not this one. [20 Jun 2015, p.52]

This is a splendid return. [7 Jul 2018, p.55]

Though there's no radical change to his formula here, crucially, the consistent brilliance on display means there's no need for one. [4 Jun 2011, p.52]

Ex Lives should help them join the big boy's table. [3 Mar 2012, p.52]

Effective as their hard and heavy approach is, the formulaic familiarity does grow weary at times but that won't bother their legion of diehards and Leveler might even snare some new ones. [25 Jun 2011, p.52]

Twenty years and counting, Pearl Jam are still the kings. [Sept 17 2011, p.51]

Twelve years puts the emotion back into emo. [5 May 2012, p.54]

What you get here are all-out, blastbeat-fuelled trashers--for every anthemic call-and-response hook and melody, there's a lurching spine-crushing breakdown to follow. [22 Sep 2012, p.51]

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

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

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

A record that's powered in equal parts by defiance and ambition. [18 Mar 2017, 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 hard to imagine a more enchanting soundtrack to the summer. [24 Aug 2019, p.55]

The Helm Of Sorrow manages to sound like a different entity, while still riding that wave of existential horror.

There’s catharsis and darkness, but they are of the most forward-looking variety, fringed at times with something approaching hopeful joy. In a time where Evanescence’s usual emotional touch could easily speak to feelings of isolation, fear, confusion, hopelessness, loss and fragility, The Bitter Truth gets on that frequency and interrupts it.

Fearless album, an absolutely banging document of the last two years that will resonate far beyond his existing audience.

On The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!, the war machine is resolutely in-gear. Whatever the cause (COVID weirdness, the sacking of long-time bassist Dave Ellefson, logging onto Twitter for five minutes), it's killer.

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.

21st Century Fiction somehow manages to feel filthy, sexy, and tender all at the same time. In need of an existential crisis but want to feel like a hot rock star at the same time? Please get acquainted with your latest soundtrack to life.