Aggressive is probably the most compelling statement you’re going to hear for the validity of heavy rock music in 2016.

You'll blare Valuables on the car radio one moment, then throw it through headphones for study time later. [Jan 2017, p.83]

Give[s] Skyward In Triumph and Earth 2 a run for the title of Best Album By A Duo, ever. [Jan 2005, p.113]

They deliver a collection of moving songs unified by skillful, understated songwriting, and a warmer, more organic tone than its predecessor, 2009's winning Chasing Hamburg. [Oct 2011, p.110]

Palmer captures the human condition like no other artist. {Oct 2012, p.90]

Stand too clsose to the bagpipes, harmonica, scream-along choruses and a constant artillery of thundering drums, and your ears are gonna get powder burns. [Apr 2010, p.130]

Anxiety's Kiss is what Coliseum have been working towards all these years. [Jun 2015, p.97]

Through every shift in tone and style, Fernow keeps his focus, connecting these songs with small bits of spoken word that conjure up dark visions of people desperately searching for meaning in an increasingly dismal world.

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is an absolute blast, rich in ringing guitar and euphoric synths but thankfully light on fromage and staid rehashes. [Jul 2009, p.130]

Nobody creates teeth-rottingly sweet indie rock better than Denver's Dressy Bessy. [Sep 2003, p.102]

The quintet's Molotov mixture of suburb surrealism and sonic extremity is the perfect scrub for everything you've been subjected to in culture and daily life. [Apr 2003, p.73]

It’s just the right balance of heavy and light tones, a mixture that Barnett & Co. continue to perfect throughout the whole album.

Architects somehow increase the ferocity with hit-and-run instrumentation to highlight Sam Carter, the genre's strongest clean vocalist and screamer. [Jun 2016, p.100]

The result is a vivid, nostalgic traipse into what good rock bands ought to sound like. [Mar 2008, p. 144]

Tempos have been ground down to a slow crawl, but as Melvins and Sunn O))) have proven, that tactic just gives a band the chance to prove how heavy they really are. [Jun 2010, p.105]

Dear Youth is a one-size-fits-all hardcore album, one that will lead many fresh faces through the door but leave returners looking for more.

Eschewing the DJ-friendly club format they perfected on 1999's Remedy, the Jaxx are now writing R&B-flavored pop songs... But their success is hit-and-miss... [Jul 2001, p.60]

Easily ranks among their best. [Oct 2002, p.83]

Confield not only documents the future of IDM; it also cements Autechre's name in the pantheon of sonic visionaries. [Jul 2001, p.63]

Doiron's presence and Squire's understated electric guitar imbue the album with haunting, spectral beauty equal to anything Elverum's done. [Dec 2008, p.138]

Thier debut album is one of the most inventive in recent memory. [Apr 2008, p.153]

While minor lulls can be found and their habit of zeroing in on daily life's mundane nuances risks self-parody, this s*** still rips. [Mar 2013, p.92]

Bardo Pond have become equally adept at making hearts and heads ache. [#155, p.68]

A collection of delicate love songs with a back-porch feel, but the electronic warbles add enough texture for a new generation of stoners to space out on. [June 2003, p.96]

A playful retro-pop event full of shifting moods. [Nov 2001, p.77]

M. Ward's creations have the fragility of drawings made in the dust that's settled on a china cabinet. [Apr 2003, p.87]

These six songs offer moments as heavy as P-Tree have ever been, but are wistfully, sprawlingly melodic as well-sometimes in the same tune.

Like Stay What You Are on steroids, it's a half-hour of instant gratification with paeans to overcoming romantic and introspective obstacles. [Oct 2014, p.101]