No, this isn’t Weezer at their world-altering best, but it is the sound of a band who have at least re-opened the door to the cupboard where their magic formula is kept.

This record manages the remarkable feat of balancing true integrity with universal appeal.

It's far from easy listening but it's an approach that's won them legions of devoted fans in the process and comes close to reducing many of their peers to nothing more than musical footnotes in the larger scheme of things.

Half-panicked, half-anthemic ‘Runnin’ Scared’ aside, this is all a little meek, but that’s kind of the idea.

Throw in the stunning power and clarity of Alan Moulder's mix and you have the sound of a band revitalised, re-inspired and highly evolved.

With Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, AC/DC) producing, Stephen Christian's vocals cry out louder than ever across closer 'Depraved' and it proves that five albums in Anberlin have moved beyond the light of 'New Surrender' to dabble with a more interesting, darker edge that borders on Circa Survive.

Hope is the soundtrack to the summer you've not yet had, and from here it sounds like it might be the best one yet.

It sparkles with invention, creativity, crushing use of dynamics and, when all's said and done, just really strong songs.

This is a classic Bosstones album; a record that rises above the notion of categorisation and which anyone with a pulse will find it impossible not to warm to.

Coheed And Cambria are always at their finest when they're being dramatic, and as such 'Year Of The Black Rainbow' is possibly their best record to date.

Bearing the smart but dark pop hallmarks of bands like The Cure and Echo And The Bunnymen, it’s astonishing how the L.A. foursome’s fusion of disco, funk and hot gothic takes sounds so fresh in 2017, 30-odd years after that stuff’s heyday.

It'd be a far easier listen if it was a proper studio release.

Stoke Extinguisher offers both food for thought and fuel for the pit; cheap gags jostle for space with anti-establishment rhetoric and a wry sense of self-depreciation.

The Final Frontier might sound alien at first, but Iron Maiden's DNA is splashed all over it.

Heritage is an infinitely more audacious beast, full of jazzy noodling, serpentine guitar leads, folky introspection and general acid-drenched freakiness.

There's enough originality to warrant a second look, though, evoking the epic soul of the infamous The Haçienda club with percussive clatter overseen by techno producer Ewan Pearson.

With no reason to buck the trend, Damage very much continues the Arizonan four-piece’s reliability streak.

Angry and scathing, Radke's return is welcome.

It's hard to fathom how Bardo Pond have made their life-in-a-lava-lamp jams for the best part of 20 years with--we're assuming--their marbles still intact, but here they are, bubbling away with no sign of letting the quality dip.

While the 15-year-old group may not have explicitly improved their game, Khaos Legions provides a mass of suitably heroic melo-metal anthems. The hardcores will be pleased.

There's nothing immediately wrong with Perch Patchwork--'Living Decorations' and 'Israeli Caves' are serviceable indie rock tunes, and 'Was' is a teasingly low-key ditty--but the core of the album is eminently forgettable.

The latest album from St Louis, Illinois, quartet So Many Dynamos is definitely a keeper.

It's quite good.

Asylum won't set the world alight, but it's certainly not monotonous enough to send anyone to the madhouse.

Nothing Earth-shattering, but enough solid riffs and spiffy one-liners that won't seem too out-of-place during a headlining set.

King Animal doesn't hit as hard as their really early material, but it's well-paced.

Loaded with heady guitar trips and crunching grooves, all topped off with flamboyant frontman Scott Weiland’s soulful vocal (which sounds all the better for his newly cleaned-up lifestyle), this is classic STP.

Mechanize is without doubt their heaviest and most powerful, and considering the stark, foreboding lyrical subject matter it seems totally relevant that it should be. A truly emphatic return.

Taken as a whole, Helioscope represents another intriguing release from a band who remain a hugely promising proposition.

On The Flood the transitions are so effortless, so seamless, that what emerges is a near-perfect example of how to marry potentially ill-fitting musical elements in stunningly effective fashion.

Starting off pleasant but eventually becoming a regular stereo occupier, the grungier second half of this release is the better half.

The Computers' impressive debut is a riotous, riff-laden affair.

Noticeably less refined than the aforementioned masterpiece, ‘Pendulum In A Peasant Dress’, ‘Tilting At The Univendor’ and ‘Torrentially Cutshaw’ are part of a breathlessly jagged, abrasive, unruly and punk as fuck whole.

It works. It all makes an album full of awesome, genuine pop-rock music. Time will tell if this album and the next couple of years propel this band to the huge rooms these songs were made for, but for now? A great band just got even better.

A poppier polish, especially vocally, coats this album as they move into catchier, crowd-pleasing metalcore territory with mixed results.

The Massachusetts five-piece don't hit as many compositional peaks as predecessor Overcome, although tracks like Hold On and The Last Time bridge the gap considerably.

The downside is that their understandable fear of becoming just another indie band leads them into too many changes of direction. Just having great tunes has never been enough.

While not everything works--‘Dorian’ goes nowhere in particular and the assorted amateurish synths on show grate on the nerves and feel like an afterthought--this is rarely less than compelling.

What makes Zeroes QC so satisfying is the way in which they've warped and perverted their electronic base.

MCR have made an album that is as fun as it is meaningful, as experimental as it is familiar. Let's see the Daily Mail hijack this one...

Alkaline Trio aren’t naïve punk rockers from the Chicago suburbs anymore, as a result this album fails to recapture that innocence but succeeds in creating another strong body of work that the group can be proud of.

Those familiar intricacies are thankfully still present and correct and the direct approach undoubtedly suits a band still full of ideas.

It’s another richly woven tapestry of dark-hearted fare which draws on influences as disparate as The Pet Shop Boys and Ministry with aplomb.

Said record does exactly what it says on the tin, veering between fuzzed-up garage rock stomp and mesmeric psychedelic sprawl in a manner that's sure to delight fans of 09's Smile.

This record is the result of Finn turning his hand to songwriting for the very first time and, yes, he's nailed it.

Every note here sounds like the logical conclusion to the evolution of each preceding record--a remarkable achievement.

It's challenging (but not a challenging listen), pushing boundaries and smashing down your very notions of what metal--or metalcore--is.

Crisis Works is at base a heavy rock record, the likes of 'Twin Victory' an absolute whirlwind of crushing riffs. However, there are plenty of dynamics, tender moments and a definite through line of melody here too.

There’s hope in bouncy standout ‘Carry The Sorrow’, but this album is okay, and not much else.

Lerner's pop sensibility is still there, but now buried beneath distortion and throbbing bass, making this an intriguing, if not entirely welcoming, listen

A disturbing but utterly all-consuming listen.

More industrial than 08's Anthems For The Damned, this fifth effort should slip them into that position.

In fact, with its consistently gorgeous delivery, Pulse is actually most reminiscent of French electronica pioneers Air. Go figure.

Although there are storming successes amongst the album's 11 tracks (such as 'Slaves To Substance' and 'You Only Live Once') The Black Crown falls a fraction shy of the pack-shedding statement it needs to be.

Mattie aims to start conversations, change minds and make a difference, and with a collection of tracks that are as catchy as they are provocative, he’s on his way.

Kaleide runs out of steam towards its close--heaven knows why the original, blustery version of "Smarts" has made way for a sombre reworking--but it's still an enjoyable, grown-up follow-up to the band's debut.

For those who are not familiar with Monotonix, they're the garage rock band from Israel who are best known for their live sets [...] that leaves this forlorn album reviewer with no visuals nor an earhole full of sweat, instead just 10 songs of crude, cave-art proto-metal and a duty to tell you that actually, Monotonix have a relevance outside of the live context.

The band’s most mainstream offering yet and first for their major label home.

It’s album number three from Steel Panther and no surprise, it’s ridiculous spoof-splattered business as usual.

Granted, in the more ballady numbers such as 'All Or Nothing', things delve into slightly forgettable power-pop territory, but overall there is enough substance here to credit this as a decent debut effort.

There are moments, like the echoey, spacious ‘Dead Moon’, when things get eerie and alienated but more often they’re down-to-earth and bluesy, like they’ll stop playing when the beers arrive.

Old fans will lap Rescue up (and rightly so), but there's not much on offer here to entice fresh ears and gain new fans.

It’s bracing, familiar and flat-out exhausting all at the same time.

Prior To The Fire will set the Canadians aside from their peers.

'Coffee And Cigarettes' and the title track slowly uncurl themselves over the course of a few days and before you know it, it feels like Jimmy Eat World never went away.

While the band set themselves up well on songs such as 'I Like Drugs' and 'Just Like Tiger Woods', the record does rely a little too much on no-brainer jokes about girls.

While this style of Appleseed Cast-esque, classic Deep Elm indie-rock can require a bit more long-term buy-in than noisier, brasher and more immediately gratifying records, the resulting pay-off is rewarding.

Some of the live tracks on here are a little scratchy sounding but re-worked versions of ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘The Queen Of Lower Chelsea’ quieten any simmering cynicism about the point of this record.

It's a pleasure to report, then, that Hurley is a fine album.

The self-imposed time restraints have merely served to sharpen the quartet's focus in quite glorious fashion.

Though Makes Me Sick is still a fun listen--complete with some brilliant lyrical put-downs, genuinely touching moments and echoes of past glories--it doesn’t quite capture NFG at their life-affirming best.

On his latest solo effort, System of a Down man, Serj Tankian, continues to stride further and further away from the sound that was once his bread and butter.

Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky displays that Damian Kulash and co are perfectly capable of writing more grown-up, experimental material.

Whether it’s thrashier influences on ‘Silver Linings’ or lyrics that casually rip the piss out of their genre in ‘In Light Of Me’, it’s a refreshing listen.

There's been a noticeable progression in sound over the years, but whether it's for the better is debatable. You see, Disguises is neither brilliant or dreadful.

Man Overboard have done a fine job of not only flying the flag high for DIY pop-punk, but also at emerging as the forerunners of the scene.

This is a lethargic, dull attempt at writing an album from a band that sound like they’ve forgotten how to do just that.

Every Where Is Some Where is in turns intimate, expansive, confessional and inviting--thoroughly addictive on the dark, pulsing and urgent ‘Blood In The Cut’, woozily euphoric on ‘High Enough’, playfully political on ‘The President Has A Sex Tape’ and swirling and sultry on ‘You Felt Right’.

They're back in irresistibly anthemic form, with just the right blend of punk attitude and pop genius.

All your usual horror and metal needs are catered for, although according to Wednesday 13 the lyrics are more personal this time round.

All in all, Set The World On Fire sounds a bit like a band having an identity crisis – the sound no longer matches the carefully-created image but the music's decent none the less.

The Hammer Horror synths still jar at times and there are few surprises for long-time fans, but aside from that this is, like its self-titled predecessor, an impressive effort.

Admittedly, some riffs do feel like re-runs of Korn classics, holding the album back from true greatness. That’s charming in itself, though: reminding us how deeply important this band once were and continue to be.

Mr Wylde is onto another grininducing winner here and long may it continue.

Crammed with skyscraping melodies and moments of spine-tingling poignancy, it stands them in the best possible stead for packing out stadiums and headlining festivals in the near future. They’ve fulfilled their side of the bargain with these 10 songs.

Rather than feeling like a mash-up of their favourite bands--which is no bad thing--album two finds the four-man phenomenon firming up their identity and becoming their own band.

With no outside influences to force these leek-lovin’ lads’ song-writing hand, they’ve delivered an album that, although not as polished as previous efforts (but that’s part of the charm), is purely Lostprophets; and the real sound of progress, for sure.

Furiosity is crass, it’s rowdy, and it’s totally unoriginal but in the best kind of way.

Crossfaith’s debut full-length, Apocalyze proves more than worthy of the hype surrounding them.

Twin Forks is an album of freedom and exploration, the sound of people taking risks for the sake of song. We like that.

This is the band’s 10th studio album, and it’s chock full of chugging, anthemic rock songs, torn straight from the ’80s airwaves. That’s no bad thing, even if in places, The Trigger Complex does sound lost in time.

This is so inoffensive, it’ll be hard for anyone to hate--or love.

The fluidity is back, all the parts gelling easily into a whole.

While it might leave your average post-rock fan will crave a bit of misery, Fair Youth is an undeniably engaging listen.

All Time Low's songs are more up-scale and better put-together on this record, and that takes some serious work.

Although parts of the album’s lower key, electronica-laced back end get a little overawed by the grandeur of the project they accompany, for the most part this is Angels & Airwaves at their most ballsy and creative.

Memphis May Fire are stepping it up with every release.

It’s the driving energy and urgency of hook-filled bangers like ‘Flies’ and ‘Not For You’ that makes this memorable.