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

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

The main business is killing, of course, and business is very good. It’s one of the reasons why Tomb Mold are among the most respected names in the new school of old school. But by allowing their own ideas to run wild atop it all, they’re also comfortably one of its most creative.

There are grooves within grooves, epic 10-minute jams, and they're able to create a feeling of genuine disquiet simply by shifting a drumbeat. Absolutely mammut. [28 Mar 2015, p.54]

This is hook-laden power-pop with one eye on the world's arenas. [4 Oct 2019, p.55]

It's an old school blast, but the tongue-in-ulcer humour and streaks of structural invention prevent them from ever sounding dated. [3 Aug 2013, p.54]

There's a maturity--or at least a noticeable growth--in the band's sound and abilities. [10 Oct 2015, p.50]

Photo Of Photos retains a gloriously untethered and instinctive quality, but is brought into sharper focus by the occasional moment of clarity. [20 Oct 2012, p.54]

As much as the impressive company, what stands out on this compilation is the undimmed volatility of these songs, waiting to be set off.

In their own way The Darkness, enthusiastically blending banter and bombast in equal measure, are proving as much fun [as Queen]. [7 Oct 2017, p.51]

This is perversely life-affirming stuff, translating misery into triumph once again. [23 Aug 2014, p.54]

They’ve done something even more audacious than dropping a track with an off-the-scale number of C-words in it. They’ve dropped an album of the year contender just 10 days into 2025. Big power move, that.

If you want to hear what will inevitable be one of the metal albums of the year, look no further than In Times. [14 Mar 2015, p.54]

Aggressive is very aggressive, but it's also the sound of a band showing their strength. [4 Jun 2016, p.50]

In a time where it seems everyone wants to make noisier music as an act of defiance against an increasingly cruel world, Jehnny Beth has found a way to stand out. She’s real, she’s raw, and everything here has such a strength of spirit to it that it feels truly alive.

As ever, discerning listeners will appreciate Richard Patrick's ability to send sounds spinning into their ears from several different directions. [1 Jun 2013, p.54]

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]

Just as Emperor expanded and grew with each album, becoming ever more grandiose and sophisticated, so it is with Ihsahn's solo material that he never repeats himself. [16 Jun 2012, p.54]

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

This is the band’s most engaging and expansive musical outing to date.

It's a continuation rather than a total rebirth, but with Reincarnate, MIW's transformation is complete. [30 Aug 2014, p.51]

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.

Misadventures has proudly claimed the belt as Pierce The Veil's best offering to date. [14 May 2016, p.50]

There’s nothing too out there on Forgotten Days – the ’80s synth of the closing Caledonia probably the biggest surprise, but a welcome one: a playful take on the pain of the past – and all the tracks are solid, with any experimentation woven tightly around Pallbearer’s doom roots. This is the sound of a genre being refreshed, and of a band making it entirely their own.

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.

Rarer still are those who can apply their personality to another’s songs and make them theirs simply by sitting down and playing them. Here, she has done so to nothing less than a triumphant degree.

[Peace is] packed with well-crafted and thoughtfully arranged compositions. [28 Sep 2013, p.54]

So, 13 albums in, Clutch are still uniquely brilliant, master craftsmen of a form at once ingeniously simple and amazingly clever. And one that only they can properly do.