A quiet but definite triumph. [9 Jul 2011, p.51]

This is Steel Panther's most deliciously dirty release yet. [22 Mar 2014, p.53]

Like Patton's day job, Nevermen succeed in making the world a much weirder and interesting place. [13 Feb 2016, p.54]

An album that might not test the limits of artistry, but as with this closing track [Window], leaves you with a fuzzy feeling. [5 Aug 2017, p.51]

Lex Hives may not re-write The Hives' rulebook, it does offer proof that this band sounds heftier and, somehow, even more colorful than before. [2 Jun 2012, p.54]

It will probably prove overly sweet for some tastes but when they hit top form, they're an absolute joy. [29 Oct 2011, p.51]

Admittedly, the single-minded focus does get a bit repetitive, but Optimal Lifestyles makes for a defiantly fizzy soundtrack to growing old disgracefully. [6 Apr 2019, p.71]

Bottom-heavy power dynamic shines on tracks like Dark Horse, a parade of colossal bass drums and Demi’s pseudo-organ effects wizardry, which then reveals its true colours with a flourish of doomy, speaker-blowing riffs.

Alas, as with other City and Colour albums, this one suffers from moments of terminal blandness.

Very occasionally, such as during the first half of the otherwise excellent Crashed Out Wasted, that compulsion to pour honey in our ears can lead to a little too much saccharine. But on the whole, Race The Night is a journey worth taking, deftly hitting all of the touchpoints that make Ash such a special band.

It finds the band indulging their darkest urges, often using nothing more than noise and soundscapes. Like everything the Melvins do, however, it remains compelling, clever, and absolutely unique. [24 Jun 2017, p.53]

Everything fizzes and bursts and explodes with neon delight that sounds, genuinely, like nothing else on earth, but has a delight to it that's oh so familiar. [5 Oct 2019, p.53]

Thrilling, challenging, life-affirming rollercoaster of a record. [27 Jun 2015, p.50]

At its best, I Beat Loneliness is revelatory. Elsewhere, sadly, it’s rote. Gavin may claim to have beaten loneliness, but he’s been thwarted by his own ambitions.

Opener The Funeral presents a far less cartoonish performer than he was on 2020's overly-cute second album Weird!. This alone makes the whole thing magnitudes more enjoyable. The energised electro-pop of Memories (a duet with WILLOW) and the brooding Sex Not Violence continue on a similar tack, showing a width of creative goalpost while actually keeping things together.

In Silverstein's hands--a decade and five albums deep now--these very same, well-worn tricks work surprisingly well and it speaks volumes for the Ontario five-piece that this, their Hopeless records debut, fizzles with life and vitality from start to finish. [23 Apr 2011, p.51]

It's business as usual, then--even with a manic cover of 99 Bottles Of Beer. [2 Nov 2013, p.53]

What we're left with is an overlong, quietly ominous strumming set showcasing his twisted genius. [14 Jun 2014, p.55]

Its longer arrangements are glacial expressions of the grotesque; sludge-speed metal that taps doom for tonal contours but keeps the texture popping enough to remain compelling. [21 Dec 2013, p.70]

Hideaway could perhaps have done with a few more leftfield moments, then, because while it’s breezy and over before you know it, that’s largely because the majority of it is in one sedate speed setting.

Trauma Factory’s straight-up rap moments are more hit-and-miss, with the likes of exile and upside down feeling coherent enough but lacking in bite, demonstrating how nothing,nowhere. sounds best when the musical backdrop is thicker and leans more into the heavier side of Joe’s sound.

It's dreamy stuff, but it's nothing on their 5K-rated, self-titled 2012 debut album. [15 Nov 2014, p.54]

Vital for obsessives. [20 Jul 2013, p.53]

Even in the absence of the drum machines and sonic complexity of old, Esben And The Witch have the capacity to be seriously trippy. [23 Aug 2014, p.53]

If you want hits, there's already a better Best Of available--1997's A-Sides--while if you want a rarities album, this isn't it. [2 Oct 2010, p.51]

The main selling points of this album are a sleek production job and the technical performance of vocalist Conor Mason, who once again proves himself to be in possession of some serious lungs. The problem, however, is that despite the surface sheen, too many of Moral Panic’s songs fail to really go anywhere.

Not as romantic as their debut album, or as dynamic as the second, third album proper Eat The Elephant instead comes swathed in captivating coat embroidered by growth and maturation that doesn't unbutton easily. [14 Apr 2018, p.53]

True, some of the reggae songs a re a bit lightweight, but on the punk numbers, Bad Brains' righteous fevour remains undimmed. [24 Nov 2012, p.53]