Circa Survive have managed to stay both relevant and utterly compelling – not just surviving but thriving.

Short of any psychotropic assistance, Wild Light is a credible substitute for nirvana, demanding you suspend your disbelief and just jump in feet first, setting yourself free from all corporeal existence.

It's a frenetic, hugely entertaining and inventive genre mash-up full of punk rock aggression and rock 'n' roll swagger that blends inventive chaos with a real ear for melody.

This is a deafening, destructive and devilishly diverse affair, serving as a firm and timely reminder that when it comes to this particular game, nobody does it quite like this.

Production-wise, the vocals could do with sounding more 'live' (they are note perfect)--but the musicianship present is enough to justify the polish.

The eagerly anticipated album from London based indie-rock three-piece The Joy Formidable far exceeds all expectation.

For all its bluster, There Is A Hell is far more than the story of a man battling his self-perpetuated inner turmoil; it is the sound of a remarkable band establishing themselves as one of the finest of their generation.

The Foo Fighters may have ballooned in size over the past few years and if it took them going back to their roots to make an album this good then so be it, but when all is said and done Wasting Light is as an example of how to be a globe-eatingly massive band and still sound young, hungry and, above all, important.

Clocking in at just under an hour across 14 songs, about 12 of which could easily be singles, Technology is engaging, fun and an early contender for album of the year, plus the album of this band’s career.

Throughout, the highs are tinged with sadness and the lows with hope, making Simple Math a complex and rewarding album that soars above the pack.

It might lack the narrative arc of 09's An Imaginary Country, but it's hard to imagine that 2011 will see many finer releases, of any genre.

This is ace.

This record could slot into any punk rock fan’s record collection in the last 15 years and get worn out--it’s just great, timeless songwriting.

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

Lost Forever, Lost Together is the sound of Architects finding and unleashing the buried treasure they’ve been searching for.

It’s not a progressive album per se, but The Finer Things is a bar-raising attempt at revolution in pop-punk.

This is music that creates a vortex in your brain, sucking the entire cosmos in through one ear and out the other, leaving behind only the secrets of the universe and the unerring tranquillity of space. Yes. It really is that good.

Continuing where the dark grooves of 8's Nude With Boots left off, The Bride… exhibits the perfect marriage between the Big Business boys and Melvins main-men King Buzzo and Dale Crover.

Front to back, start to finish, this is pop-punk for those who have lived, loved and lost and aren’t afraid to contemplate the fact that maybe, just maybe, it isn’t going to be their weekend or their year.

Influences are obvious but the balance between light and dark is perfect here.

TesseracT have taken the djent blueprint and, barring occasional plunges into riff soup, have re-engineered it into a living, breathing, emotive display of rousing poly-prog.

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.

The melodies are huge, the hoarse vocals are fairly infrequent – but this is probably one of the most punk rawk albums Rise Against have recorded.

While tracks such as Broken Home still deliver the crushing might (albeit in a more subliminal fashion) to his other outfit, the recently resurrected Godflesh, there's a sense of hope in the levitation-inducing riffery. Stellar.

While several tracks would sit comfortably on a Best Of ...Trail Of Dead playlist Tao Of The Dead certainly feels like their most consistent collection in years.

Most strikingly, Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa displays a masterful control over the multi-faceted Cradle Of Filth sound; brutal vocal gymnastics, skull-rattling double-kicks, symphonic flourishes, dramatic narrative and balls-out axe-slinging all make their presence known, but in a manner which routinely serves to bolster the coherency of the greater whole.

To hear a band with such obvious and deep passion playing unencumbered and liberated rock music is an utterly captivating experience that Rock Sound would thoroughly recommend. Holding nothing back sounds exactly like this, everyone else please take note.

Their name might suggest one thing, but this lot are definitely not going around in circles; this is their best record yet.