An album that, while not Thrice's best, still soars above the competition. [25 Jun 2016, p.51]

Some of the tracks judder with a rhythm to which you cam only dance when in the throes of an electric shock. But as wearisome as these sections tend to be, they are almost wholly redeemed by moments of musical brilliance, moments which border on the sublime. [25 Jun 2016, p.50]

The 10 blasts of raging hardcore, death metal and stomach acid they vomit here are delivered with the worst of intentions. [4 Jun 2016, p.51]

[A] brilliant album. [18 Jun 2016, p.51]

Occasionally its brilliant--as on the thumpy disco electronics of V.I.T.R.O.L. and the sweetly memorable Hold Your Fire. Sadly, an equal amount of it flounders in a haze of boring shoegaze. [11 Jun 2016, p.53]

It does meander in the middle, but mostly this is an admirable step in Katatonia's ongoing quest to keep their identity fresh. [18 Jun 2016, p.52]

Their sixth album finds them stepping into a world where bands like PVRIS have started to occupy a similar space to Shirley Manson and co. It's only made Garbage themselves better. [11 Jun 2016, p.53]

Aggressive is very aggressive, but it's also the sound of a band showing their strength. [4 Jun 2016, p.50]

Expect this to crop up on more than a few album-of-the-year lists. [4 Jun 2016, p.52]

They've taken things into a place where that barbed-wire charm takes a backseat to sounding absolutely enormous. [4 Jun 2016, p.53]

With Things Will Matter, one of the most distinctive bands to have emerged in recent years continue to make bold strides into the unknown. [21 May 2016, p.50]

Against The Current have made the record they've been threatening to do so for years. [7 May 2016, p.40]

The opener The Silver String is somewhat plodding and predictable isn't the best start, and unfortunately these are two words that can be applied with far too much frequency. [21 May 2016, p.52]

It's a bold, transitional statement from a band that's still reaching for their best. [21 May 2016, p.52]

Material continues the experimentation in conjoining the macabre drama of the pair's day job with pulsating, mid-tempo dance. [16 Apr 2016, p.53]

Misadventures has proudly claimed the belt as Pierce The Veil's best offering to date. [14 May 2016, p.50]

The Shadow Side reveals Andy Black as a creative force of his own, albeit one still finding his sound, his boundaries, his feet. [30 Apr 2016, p.66]

Yes it gets samey, but in Hatebreed's hands predictability doesn't tend to mean boring. [30 Apr 2016, p.68]

It's apparent that Jacob's half is largely concerned with the separation anxiety of life on the road. ... Brendan Lukens was dealing with mental health and addiction issues in the run up to this album. This sudden jolt to a jerkier, more angular alt.rock style reflects that. [14 May 2016, p.51]

Their sharpest, biggest and best album to date. [7 May 2016, p.51]

As a collection of songs, it's their strongest in some time, and certainly proves that it's not too late to convert to the scriptures of Metal Church. [2 Apr 2016, p.52]

Some of the hookiest hooks and riffiest riff in his catalogue. [30 Apr 2016, p.67]

Standards is a total success. [30 Apr 2016, p.68]

It's a record you'll return to again and again, such is the strength of the songs. [5 Mar 2016, p.50]

This is music that has no mind for the commercial, which is a quality we all might applaud. But be warned, this is intense stuff. [16 Apr 2016, p.53]

All that you take in is that Gore is Deftones being Good Deftones. [9 Apr 2016, p.50]

With The Black, Asking Alexandria have made the album that they've always wanted to make. Which also happens to be the album fans have always wanted to hear. [19 Mar 2016, p.66]

As we say, brilliant fun. And shot fired. [2 Apr 2016, p.50]

All Downhill From Here should have been track two, not seven because [Figure Me Out] is unbeatable. ... Skip this one [Missin' You] if you're a fan of One Direction. Guys, guitars... use them. [2 Apr 2016, p.51]

On Cheap Trick's 17th album--and that is the most Cheap Trick title ever Cheap Trick'd--the man's ability to write sugar-coated riffs that stick in your head as though made of golden syrup has not diminished. [2 Apr 2016, p.53]

The sheer, unreconstructed manliness and testosterone that flows through every riff takes you right to the heart of whatever battle Amon Amarth are embroiled in. [2 Apr 2016, p.52]

As a whole, this is BSC's dirtiest, heaviest outing yet. [27 Mar 2016, p.51]

It's got markedly better machine-gunning riffs than wilderness years albums like 1999's Speed Of Sound. [27 Feb 2016, p.53]

Patch The Sky continues a creative roll that's rarely slowed. [26 Mar 2016, p.52]

The Joy Formidable still roar. In fact, on Hitch, they sound more like themselves than ever before. [26 Mar 2016, p.52]

An instantly likable example of how good Weezer an be. [25 Mar 2016, p.50]

A record that's a straight-up fantastic return to Brian's rock'n'roll roots. [19 Mar 2016, p.67]

These inoffensive songs will take up almost none of your mind's capacity for thought or pleasure. [12 Mar 2016, p.53]

There's moments of chain-breaking experimentation sewn throughout. It's not going to freak out anyone accustomed to KsE's meat, but it's definitely sharpened and refreshed what they're serving up. [12 Mar 2016, p.50]

It's been a hell of a ride, one where the journey is just as much fun as reaching the journey. [12 Mar 2016, p.51]

Limitless is often thwarted by its execution rather than its ambition. [27 Feb 2016, p.50]

It's an interesting trip, if one that occasionally sees ATW stray too far into self-indulgence. [27 Feb 2016, p.52]

Throughout, Anthrax have much to recommend them. [13 Feb 2016, p.52]

Lyrically, [frontman Pierre Bouvier] and his bandmates have barely matured from the whimpering youngsters they were when they made it big 14 years ago.... However, if you accept Taking One For The Team for what it is, which is just another Simple Plan album, then there's lots to enjoy. [20 Feb 2016, p.50]

An album that's easily good enough to keep Wolfmother in orbit. [13 Feb 2016, p.53]

Like Patton's day job, Nevermen succeed in making the world a much weirder and interesting place. [13 Feb 2016, p.54]

Their 11th album, is a heaving smorgasbord of all those [quality meaty metal] sounds. [30 Jan 2016, p.52]

Across its 10 tracks, Promise everything is immediate, yet charged with subtleties that offer an increasing number of things to fall in love with each passing listen. [30 Jan 2016, p.52]

It's this complete departure from the norm, this clean break from Greg Puciato's day job, that's the key to Fever Daydream's success. [30 Jan 2016, p.50]

The fiery swagger and coursing vitriol of these, Jonathan's final recordings, now stand as monuments. [23 Jan 2016, p.52]

This is a decent redneck honk that could earn them some new friends while they're away. [23 Jan 2016, p.53]

By channeling everyone from Sonic Youth to Alice In Chains, Milk Teeth's debut hits with the power of a dozen brilliant bands at once. [23 Jan 2016, p.51]

Like its two predecessors, this is solid Skunk that doesn't quite have the songs to match their ground-breaking first two albums. [9 Jan 2016, p.51]

An epic adventure that is, in every single way, truly astonishing indeed. [16 Jan 2016, p.51]

That first album wasn't a one-off, and here The Temperance Movement have once again proved themselves masters of their craft. [2 Jan 2016, p.52]

For the most part, this is an awkward journey that sounds like no-one else. Try it but don't expect an easy ride. [9 Jan 2016, p.52]

Dystopia does see Megadeth come within hailing distance of their dazzling best. [16 Jan 2016, p.50]

The album is one long ambient jam and precisely as exciting as that sounds. [16 Jan 2016, p.53]

You can hear where he's heading with ideas, but, for the most part, these are more sketches than fully-formed songs. [16 Jan 2016, p.52]

Like the soundtrack to a wedding reception, DOAB is Panic! At The Disco turnt up, both musically and lyrically. [9 Jan 2016, p.50]

Occasionally songs hand around a little too long, but all the bruises Black Breath leave linger in the best kind of way. [10 Oct 2015, p.41]

A positive and uplifting album, and one that marks the most hard-fought comeback of the year. [12 Dec 2015, p.50]

Like Sabbath on an especially mellow day. [14 Nov 2015, p.52]

You get exactly the sort of greasy grooves you'd expect, but with a whole lot of Cuban cool thrown in as well. [14 Nov 2015, p.52]

It's an epic journey, and one that both requires and repays immersion and patience. [14 Nov 2015, p.53]

The slo-mo mantras of this three-part suite successfully blast the divisions between high and low culture to smithereens. [5 Dec 2015, p.52]

With a demo-like production, it's not as good as the Ramones' similarly sourced Acid Eaters, but hearing him Danzig-up these tunes is still highly entertaining. [5 Dec 2015, p.52]

It's almost perfect in its imperfection. [5 Dec 2015, p.50]

Essential? For completists. Worth hearing? Absolutely. [7 Nov 2015, p.50]

It's a collection of suitably mixed results, but Fall Out Boy should be applauded for continuing to do whatever the hell they feel like. [7 Nov 2015, p.52]

Obviously, we'd much prefer to have a new Tool album, but in the interim, Money Shot won't leave you feeling short-changed. [31 Oct 2015, p.54]

Brilliantly delirious or deliriously brilliant, International Blackjazz Society is the mark of a band that are losing their minds in the best possible way. [7 Nov 2015, p.52]

From the meandering opener, Weave, it's a record that's entirely absorbing. [31 Oct 2015, p.54]

They continue to blast out their post-punk hymns to the end of the world with a wild-eyed mania that's genuinely scary. [31 Oct 2015, p.54]

Too late to be the sound of the summer, Beach Slang will instead warm your hearts all winter--and far beyond. [31 Oct 2015, p.54]

5 Seconds To Summer are clearly at their best when drummer Ashton is let loose behind his kit and the band are powering through huge, catchy choruses. [17 Oct 2015, p.52]

Back On Top never loses sight of something very important: trying something new. [24 Oct 2015, p.52]

There's a maturity--or at least a noticeable growth--in the band's sound and abilities. [10 Oct 2015, p.50]

It's all formula though, and fresh ingredients are few and far between. [3 Oct 2015, p.52]

A surprisingly coherent batch of soured psychedelia. [3 Oct 2015, p.52]

It's a hell of a return, better than you might have expected. [17 Oct 2015, p.52]

A surprisingly concise, but still collates the quartet's strengths into a mostly satisfying whole. [10 Oct 2015, p.52]

It's nothing we've not heard before from Clutch, but it remains superbly head-crushing. [10 Oct 2015, p.52]

It is music that asks for patience n an impatient age. [10 Oct 2015, p.52]

They've managed to serve up complexity in a deceptively digestible manner. [10 Oct 2015, p.52]

Boasting darker, braver, more thrillingly complex compositions. [10 Oct 2015, p.52]

Fidlar can still party; they just know they can't do it every night now. [3 Oct 2015, p.53]

Jesse Hughes and Queens Of The Stone Age main man Josh Homme's capacity for throwing out sexy grooves has only improved with age. [3 Oct 2015, p.52]

Permanence is a brave, bold step into a new beginning. [19 Sep 2015, p.51]

"Misfits" is a bit of a bland closer musically, but it's a sentiment that fits the album--and Shinedown--perfectly. [26 Sep 2015, p.51]

This may be the year's most melodically ambitious release. [26 Sep 2015, p.52]

Like a poison ice cream, MCS are once again delicious, but deadly. [26 Sep 2015, p.52]

Not only is it moving, it's arguably one if the best records Chris has made in the last 15 years. [26 Sep 2015, p.53]

Jack White is a man you can depend on for a dirty groove and a greasy riff. Which he serves up amply here. [26 Sep 2015, p.53]

The rock'n'roll spirit is just as potent as the kind you get from a bottle in a sleazy LA watering hole. [19 Sep 2015, p.52]

By stabbing in the dark and boldly going where they've never gone before, they've made something genuinely great. [12 Sep 2015, p.48]

This is pure Slayer through and through. [12 Sep 2015, p.51]

Here, The Wonder Years have grown into the rarest of bands: one whose meanings accumulate between songs.... There's so, so much to hear this time around. [22 Aug 2015, p.50]