This is a collection of good and sometimes very good songs from a band hacking their way towards their 40th birthday. [15 Jan 2011, p.51]

It might not always offer its charms up easily, but Crisis Works is an auspicious debut. [7 May 2011, p.52]

The fury here comes from an ominous intensity and oppressive claustrophobia. And that makes this album raw, anarchic, bleak and enjoyably nasty. [45 May 2012, p.53]

It won't be to all tastes, but those that care will cherish Simple Maths dearly. [7 May 2011, p.52]

It's an album that succeeds on its own terms but if it really does mark the effective end of Opeth as a metal band, that will remain our loss. [Sept 17 2011, p.50]

Over the course of their 10-year career, The Black Dahlia Murder have struck rigorously to their melodic death signature sound while delivering engaging albums, and Ritual maintains this standard. [25 Jun 2011, p.51]

It's a little one-dimensional in places, but there's no denying the strength of feeling raging underneath. [3 Nov 2012, p.53]

There's loads to admire here--but plenty to test your patience, too. [11 Jan 2014, p.54]

Maintaining their business-as-usual ethic it's nonstop Americana-a-go-go. [15 Oct 2016, p.52]

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

It's when they channel the early days of '70s metal on the Deep Purple-ish Endless Night that they're at their best.... A little more such magic, and Graveyard would be great. [3 Nov 2012, p.53]

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]

It's an energetic debut that certainly shoes that this band is full of--as yet untapped--potential. [11 Feb 2012, p.52]

It's just that Dirty work is merely a good album, when it should be a great one. [4 Jun 2011, p.51]

It has one or two fine songs, A Song For A Son is probably Billy's best since Adore in 1998 but , decent though it is, it's not a Smashing Pumpkins record. [5 Jun 2010, p.50]

While this is as trying and testing as it is unique, it's certainly not without its charms. [4 Jun 2011, p.51]

Cheap Girls aren't the most original band around, but they rock in all the right places. [10 May 2014, p.54]

Good in the dark on headphones, but it's not going to get the party started. [25 Jan 2014, p.54]

On this third album, his gnarly riffs and garage-level production are as unpolished and far-out as ever, but the element of surprise has turned into comforting familiarity. [5 Sep 2015, p.52]

Opener The Funeral presents a far less cartoonish performer than he was on 2020's overly-cute second album Weird!. This alone makes the whole thing magnitudes more enjoyable. The energised electro-pop of Memories (a duet with WILLOW) and the brooding Sex Not Violence continue on a similar tack, showing a width of creative goalpost while actually keeping things together.

Its lo-fi, organ-heavy, cheap drum machine-driven jams reveal his ear for fusing classic team-dream rock'n'roll with demented pastiche. [Sept 17 2011, p.51]

Thirty years on from the release of their earth-jolting, trouble-divining self-titled debut, Killing Joke show no signs of either mellowing or cracking a smile. [Sept. 25, 2010, p. 51]

There may not dispense with metalcore's regular musical motifs, then, yet the ire throughout is genuine enough that you can feel flecks of venom melting vocalist Matty Mullins' microphone. [4 Jun 2011, p.53]

This new solo album is at its strongest when Greg finds new ways to express himself. Where there are traces of the Whigs’ soul power, as on Sempre and The Tide, it’s hard not to compare the songs unfavourably to his day job.

The overall result being that Dananananaykroyd have finally made actual songs rather than the exercises in unpredictability they have in the past. [11 Jun 2011, p.51]

The sextet have stepped up their game on this record, boasting some real song writing chops too. [2 Jul 2011, p.51]

The whole thing is suitably drenched with nihilism, once more conveying the sense that, in their world, smiles should result in a beating, because everything is truly hopeless. [1 Jul 2017, p.52]

Minus The Bear are back on track. [22 Sep 2012, p.51]