This is their best work to date and the great thing is, you can tell they're still evolving and fleshing out which direction to head in. It feels like a state of limbo, but in the best way possible.

11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory is all about our conviction, belief, the redemption we seek... and ultimately, triumph of the human spirit. Not a bad way to dropkick off the year.

This isn’t simply a rap album. It’s a political album. It’s an educated album. It’s a creative hodgepodge of beats, ideas, and idealisms. And most of all, right now, it’s an important album.

Keith Buckley's masterminded so much raw emotion, power and helped provide an experience that's always as vicious as it is captivating. Low Teens is another example of this, encapsulating the best of the eight LPs that came before, and really representing the history of the band--dynamic metalcore at its best.

Fans will be glad to hear the new material and to know that ST is more than just a nostalgia act. This album, like the last, is rock solid.

It's all over the place but in a good way as it prides itself on attributes and characteristics that can best be described as rushes of earnest shoutalongs, candidly told and catchily brought to life musically. All with a songwriting vulnerability like he's never shown before.

While the rockers establish the theme, it’s the slow numbers that really drive the point home.

This record blew away all expectations. It never stands still and always finds a way of resonating.

These are songs about everyday life at its most basic level. You'll have to decide for yourself whether that's enough.

This isn’t horrible, but I can really only recommend Dead to the World to hardcore Helmet fans. The rest of you should just go listen to Meantime.

It’s a perfect album in every sense of the word, this album is timeless.

This album, musically, feels like a return to Cohen’s work in the 1960’s and 1970’s. While all the songs are brilliant, they’re not pop songs.

On “When It Rain,” Brown shouts, “You ain’t heard it like this before,” like a madman. Atrocity Exhibition proves him right.

Thrash metal is in the middle of a huge revival. Testament is a major part of it, joining Anthrax, Death Angel, DRI, Megadeth, Metallica and Suicidal Tendencies just to name a few. All have put out crucial new material 30 years into their careers. Add Brotherhood of the Snake to the must have thrash releases of 2016.

Crying’s progression into a new territory is an impressive one. The band truly shows how they have graduated from a chiptune band into a much more mature band still able to use elements from their old sound to form their new sound.

Integrity Blues is Jimmy Eat World's best record since Bleed American.

Every member is in top form here. Ben Weinman has crafted an eventful aural masterpiece.

When it tries, it succeeds but when it doesn't, it really crashes into the ground face first.

It's a brutally diverse album that has something for so many rock fans. It doesn't drag across...but instead races--pummeling--through a few genres that delivers something beyond wildest expectations.

The songwriting's still pretty on point and dramatic. More so, you can feel that the spine's present here which made their older music tick. It's just the meat on the bones that's spiced very differently.

They’ve always been impressively consistent while refusing to settle for anything less than greatness and Cody is just another example of this.

Overall, not as diverse a record so points lost there, but definitely a move that gives this new iteration much more character.

Overall, the album isn't a bad listen. Symphonic. Orchestral. But compared to the last outing, it's lacking.

This album shows that newfound purpose, and more importantly, it shows that NOFX is still NOFX no matter if they embrace the ‘76 or ’16 punk mentality and that they are that much better because of it.

"Breaking The Chain" and "War", give off a Linkin Park vibe for the 2000-2008 era of MTV and help prop 13 Voices up as one of the band's most radio-friendly and accessible albums to date. They do however take away from the rawness and grit diehards came for.

This album has a cultural and stylistic appeal that has enormous identity, living up to Alcest's most sublime work.

Dinosaur Jr have been an incredibly consistent outfit since reuniting, and Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not is another solid addition to their catalog. A step up from I Bet on Sky, it’s sure to please all Dino fans.

Stage Four is bigger in scope and is a flourishing sound thanks to Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt on the guitars. They craft something subtle, where less is more. Elliot Babin's drums aren't as relentless as before and this too works in their favor because it allows the vocal lmessage to seep in. Deeper and deeper.