As it is, the highlights just about mitigate the lack of surprises, making it a Red Fang album with a bite that doesn’t grip quite as much or as hard as we’ve been used to.

It's hard to shake the feeling that this is music more learned than lived. [12 Nov 2016, p.52]

Megadeth are simply a little bit mid-paced, even monochromatic. [5 Nov 2011, p.51]

Wovenwar lack a bit of bite. [26 Jul 2014, p.52]

It's good--at times with shades of greatness--but it's not, by any means, the best they've ever done. [22 Mar 2014, p.52]

While the album does lose focus at times, loosening its initial invigorating grip, the jovial bounce of Let's All Go To Hades is a surefire live hit when you've had a few pints. [11 Feb 2017, p.52]

It's Arabot's noiser moments that are their most gleeful here. [1 Sep 2018, p.55]

It's effective if unspectacular, but it's the lyrics that turn this into something special. [5 Jul 2014, p.54]

All the standard atmospheric touchstones get brushed aside here in favour of a deeper, more meditative experience. [20 Sep 2014, p.53]

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

Unfortunately, not everything works quite as well [as the opening and final tracks]. [21 May 2011, p.51]

While the first half of Is 4 Lovers takes a jackhammer to old, if still relatively fertile ground (hey, why have one song called NYC Power Elite when you can have two?), the second half dials down the pulverising and amps up the pulsating on less frenzied, more electronic songs such as Love Letter and Glass Homes.

Dark Is The Way sees the Winter Haven five-piece get it right, returning to form with a combination of heartfelt bombast, big choruses and bona fide hooks. [20 Nov 2010, p.52]

John Frusciante’s performance is effective and restrained, and drummer Chad Smith shines when he’s let loose, notably on These Are The Ways. There are, however, way too many tracks that miss their marks, trying to supplant the old energy with wisdom; the magik with maturity.

Separated from the narrative and visuals it's designed around, the music emanates an isolated, dissociated air, but that only adds to its jarring overall effect. [3 Dec 2012, p.52]

You're Welcome stumbles through grating doldrums on garage-rock autopilot, with junkyard fuzz that's more crap-nasty than good-nasty. [3 Jun 2017, p.52]

Wonderfully inessential as anything off their 2012 full-length, Self Entitled. [7 Dec 2013, p.54]

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

Frequently bursts with the impactful emotion now expected from its creators. [11 Jan 2020, p.57]

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]

At no point is it bad, and sometimes it’s rather good, but nothing here is particularly essential.

Fear Factory continue to make the future sound dark and dangerous. [1 Aug 2015, p.52]

A powerful, if not quite life-changing set of songs. [8 Jun 2019, p.55]

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]

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]

An album without any clear standout or breakaway tracks. [23 Sep 2017, p.52]

Melvins are occasionally awful, but at least the contrary sods are never dull. [27 Apr 2013, p.53]

There's nothing here that Cradle of Filth haven't done much better elsewhere. [10 Nov 2012, p.55]