Diehard metalheads will continue to grumble, but Opeth are never going back to their old sound, and with Sorceress they’ve proved the wisdom of their choice. [Oct 2016, p.57]

The undulating, snarling “Black Transit Of Jupiter’s Third Satellite” is a bubbling 12 minute antimatter expanse, the pot of black gold at the end of this particular rainbow. The journey to get there is ravishingly bleak and massaging. [Jan 2020, p.58]

Breezy, disorientated, unhurried, its content seeks an instant surface rapport through a bold display of clips and cuts. [#245, p.69]

More substantial, positive and dynamic. [#225, p.58]

It’s dense and esoteric, but gorgeous. [Oct 2019, p.55]

Electric Brick Wall isn't as groove based as the previous album, but it's an even more complex, discomfiting listen in many respects. [Jun 2014, p.48]

Allegiance & Conviction is Windy & Carl’s first new album in a good long while, and it was worth the wait. [Sep 2020, p.61]

This is music strapped for battle, the beats tooled up and live-sounding, the loops and details kept to a brute minimum by Doom so that the lines, and guest spots from Vinnie Paz and Open Mike Eagle, can really punch through. [May 2018, p.63]

Lines like “History repeating itself” and “She never lost hope/When life was so hard” feel a bit generalised – the sentiment might have benefitted from a more nuanced or poetic approach. Overall however the decision to give the heroic and celebratory a wide berth is a sound one, making way for something much darker and more unsettling – a reminder that doing the right thing in times of widespread fear and conflict is seldom easy. [May 2024, p.49]

Patton and Vannier make a fine combination, vintage and modern, taking familiar sounds wonderfully elsewhere. [Oct 2019, p.58]

Where the 1982 take was hollow and grating, the gaps and silences gradually roaring with accumulating noise, this version is euphoric and transparent. [Jun 2014, p.42]

What unites them is the boldness of the material and their treatment of it. [Jun 2014, p.48]

Ultimately, pulling apart Everything Squared to discover its workings is like trying to dissect a cobweb: nothing is the central focus yet every gossamer-light part is spun with perfect precision and tension. [Sep 2024, p.53]

DJ Shadow’s latest is a hulking, 26 track beast that shifts from uptempo breakbeat and rubbery electropop to string-laden suites with relative ease. ... With synthesized tones ranging from lush to jarring, the instrumentals indicate the ear for texture that has characterised Shadow’s work since 1996’s Entroducing. [Jan 2020, p.69]

Pieces Of A Man is coherent, marrying the raw energy of trap with jazz-funk inspired beats. Black Milk’s instrumentals “Stress Fracture” and “Gwendolynn’s Apprehension” are remarkably complex both melodically and rhythmically. [Jan 2019, p.80]

Melvins' evolution from potential stoner rock dinosaurs to 21st century sound shifters is complete. [Jul 2008, p.52]

A highly engaging and very endearing album. [#223, p.59]

It is al-gitarra in the classic style: raw and intimate, with the gravel-voiced Abaraybone leading the band through the militant and melancholy blues that have long been his trademark. [Oct 2019, p.61]

Much thought has gone into the arrangements and programming, and that provides surprises as well as variety, but the consistent bottom line is respect for the songs, which is surely the best way to pay tribute to Collins herself. [May 2015, p.52]

Each track is a mini drama of yearning and patience. These are studies in building momentum, meditations on how to temporarily tap into a shared singular spirit. [Jul 2024, p.50]

Somehow the music manages to be deeply exotic and familiar at the same time. [Jun 2014, p.50]

[The Lost Tapes is] a welcome re-opening of the gates. [Jun 2012, p.53]

No Highs is a soundtrack for knotted stomachs – introverted, devoid of catharsis and all the more moving for its honesty and restraint. [Apr 2023, p.54]

A fascinatingly fractured yet whole album, it is the sound of a man not only investigating but celebrating the full cultural spectrum of his existence. [Apr 2017, p.51]

On Jinxed By Being, both Chasny and Shackleton find a collaborative meeting point where sound complements their respective aesthetics and bodies of work, while moving them towards something thrillingly new. [Aug 2024, p.59]

Bowles still makes his most emotionally compelling statements with his banjo. [Sep 2016, p.46]

A fastidiously crafted and appealingly damp hour of digital earthsong. [#229, p.57]

The guests (Denmark Vessey, Nick Offerman--yes, Ron Swanson himself--and Your Old Droog among others) are perfectly judged and the deeper message of the album, that relaxation and repose in 2018 are luxuries that those on the frontline can’t afford, is delivered with extra heft and power thanks to the lightness of touch and the sardonic style hiphop’s coollest couple demonstrate throughout. [May 2018, p.63]