“Our Finest Hour” is a speedy thrasher about being able to accept yourself in new situations. Actually, Overkill did just that with “Shine On,” which features fresh areas of groove, dynamics and lyrical contemplation.

The best odds and sods collected here are those on which they stray from relentless shouting.

Rainbow is definitely Sanchez's show: His dreamy vocals give all the fantasy crap real human warmth. [May/Jun 2010, p.966]

Frontman Mikael Akerfeldt's material is sunnier than usual, but still has room for synapse-stimulating musicianship.

In terms of its sound, it is far less exuberant than 'Bringing Down the Horse,' far more stripped-down and varied in its arrangements.

While the group's increasingly mid-paced heaviness reduces the number of showy frills and demonstrates a matured sense of melodic chops, it does make songs sound slightly repetitive by the album's end. Nevertheless, Khaos Legions will please longtime fans and probably find a few new ones for Arch Enemy

Eve ultimately transcends dog-bait stereotypes with an evolving sense of style that finds her waxing rough and cool one minute and warmly grooving along to reggae the next... [May/June 2001, p.108]

This is one that truly has us at hello--or at least at “Reset,” the opening track of Metal Church’s first album with singer Mike Howe since 1993’s ‘Hanging in the Balance.’

Consistently hot, this should tide fans over until the next patrol arrives in, oh, 2016.

Inscrutable concept aside, the new Heavy Rocks doesn't so much redefine heavy music as reconsolidate all the things fans already love about Boris.

A crafty update of California pop, shot through with the insights and ravings of a sometimes-lonely desert mystic.... Still, the disciplined songs of Trouble occasionally scream "Warning! Career Rehabilitation in Progress." [May/June 2001, p.105]

Lyrical references to Charles Bukowski and Elizabeth Carter score egghead points, but the real smarts are in the taut and tight delivery of the 10 tracks.

For all of its ferocity and force, though, Scurrilous is a surprisingly pleasant listen, in part due to frontman Rody Walker's high-pitched melodic vocals which belie the aggressiveness of the blistering guitars. Recommended, definitely. Diverse and innovative, definitely not.

In resurrecting their original sound, Filter get caught up in the same monotonous industrial atmosphere that kept Short Bus from being an essential album. [Sep/Oct 2010, p.92]

While the sound may flirt with alt-rock and electronica, the underlying sensibility is prog like BTBAM, in its melodic complexity and lyrical depth. Mar/Apr 2011, p.92]

For all its polish and sonic approachability, this is no sell-out record. Rescue may go down easy, but at the album's core, it's still an appealingly bitter pill.

Across 17 tracks with titles like “Dark Brown Teeth,” “The Blithering Idiot,” and “Drunken Baby,” Osborne delivers concise down-tuned ditties full of booming vocal melodies and bizarro humor.

Like their spiritual and sonic forefathers in Khanate, Asunder, and Buried at Sea, their music is bleak, crushing, and decidedly off-kilter.

Although none of its 13 tracks hit as hard as the early '80s, "mash"-pit ragers that made them famous, they still sound vital on the Rasta-praising punk pummeler "Popcorn" and the 88-second frenzy "Yes I."

It's melodic and Malevolent, a relentlessly good disc with an A.D.D. sufferer's list of pop-cultural obsessions ranging from Robocop to werewolves to Judas Priest. [May/Jun 2010, p.100]

They might be one drummer short of a full Melvins deck, but the resulting hand is almost entirely aces.

[The album] is their best in years, hitting upon just the right combination of melody, thrash, and hooks.

Crude, rude, filthy, and more infectious than a bad case of herpes--that sums up Balls Out, the new record from Hollywood's Steel Panther.

As eccentric as these tracks are, most of them wind up in a familiar place, with clean vocals ascending to growly, thundery choruses.

While not necessarily remarkable, The Dead of the World is a reliable slab of unspeakable evil, and bodes well for Ascension’s bright future in a grim subgenre.

Sounds of a Playground Fading hews closely to the melodic-death-metal-meets-alt-rock style these guys have spearheaded since 2002's Reroute to Remain, with crunchy riffs regularly giving way to soaring choruses that could seduce a Muse fan.

Removed from the usual metal trappings to ride Imperfect Harmonies' lofty, trippy soundscapes, Tankian's lyrics carry surprising poetic weight. [Sep/Oct 2010, p.87]

The Color Morale never strays too far from the tried-and-true tropes of their subgenre on full-length No. 3, but still manages to craft tunes that are passionate and memorable.