Unto the Locust isn't just a great album, it's an important statement that metal doesn't have to fall into trite categories or draw from pre-existing formulas to be accessible.

Five albums in to an unexpected late-career burst of greatness, grindcore pioneers Napalm Death have done it again with this awesomely titled album.

All told, it’s a huge and defiant return.

Post-hardcore group Thursday's latest, No Devolución, is a grand experience, full of depth and atmospheric subtleties that show off a new side to the group.

These five tracks bridge the gap between pop punk and melodic hardcore in a way that’s so infectious that you’ll be too busy singing along to notice.

Probably the best indie drone rock since Galaxie 500 put the Velvets jangle to hypnotic use (although Low reach even greater peaks of elegant sublimity). [#4, p.106]

Is Survived By isn’t all pit-fodder; the cinematic-sounding “Non Fiction” showcases a mastery of dynamics that’s equally as impressive as the heavy stuff.

the Georgia-based quartet venture even further into their own by creating songs that are alternately bluesy, soulful and propulsive--and often all three. ... It’s rare to come across a band that can do so much so well.

It’s all the necessary B-adjectives–bludgeoning, brutal, burly--but it’s something else too; Bloodcurdling.

Kylesa nods toward their feral past as choruses make muscular concessions to hardcore floor-punches. But other tracks are their artiest and dreamiest yet. [Nov/Dec 2010, p.96]

The record is exactly as advertised, despite three new members entering the lineup. Wrong has rarely sounded so right.

This is music at a slow simmer, not a fast boil, and as such, takes time and patience to absorb. But the passion and intensity is undeniable.

TesseracT’s real strength is that they focus on the whole instead of getting bogged down with the intricacy of the parts.

This long-awaited solo project by Converge frontman Jacob Bannon is nothing like what fans would expect, and everything they could have hoped for.

Touché Amoré’s music has always been intensely autobiographical and that introspection has reached peak levels on its fourth full-length, Stage Four.

The Migration seems to wander a bit more than 2011’s focused and phenomenal The Collective, losing some steam by the last few tracks.

There's a real sense of hip-hop culture in the lyrics, and there's a sophistication in the way that the rap is made rock here-in other words, this isn't just whiney frat-boy rhymes slapped on top of generic, down-tuned riffs.

It’s weird, it’s creepy, it’s unstable, but man, there’s art here, something that few bands can boast.

The band deftly treads the fine line between revival and revision, blasting out fistfighting hard rock anthems like “Dancing with the Wrong Girl” and “Cold War Love” that synthesize Thin Lizzy’s flair for raging riffs, jazzy chords, twin-guitar harmonies, and ruggedly romantic words into something that’s both fresh-sounding and satisfyingly familiar.

While She Sleeps have delivered the best album so far about post-Brexit/post-election anxiety. You Are We is frantic and grim, preoccupied with personal and political disintegration, but it’s also huge.

If bong-rattling stoner doom is your cup of flayed meat, you won’t want to miss this demonic feast.

Rather than play into expectations and write 12 15-minute songs about H.P. Lovecraft or the Dead Sea Scrolls, Atlanta's finest created a more-than-decent metal record.

Their third album takes the stylized blur of their previous LPs, and somehow finds new room for Circle Jerskian hooks, mid-tempo suckerpunches, and one Neurotic sludge workout. p[Jul/Aug 2010, p.90]

Packed with epic melodies, searing solos, and medieval horror imagery, Forever Abomination totally rocks, aided by (finally for these guys!) a perfect production sound.

The lyrics are in a combination of Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic, so it’s anyone’s guess what Bruun is talking about. Luckily,the music speaks for itself.

On their fourth full-length and first on their own label, jazz-spazz-metal epileptics the Dillinger Escape Plan re-embrace the all-killer, no-filler attitude that made their earlier albums and EPs so simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating. [Mar/Apr 2010, p.88]

Dark Roots offers shred-heavy political statements ("True American Hate"), hook-laden power-jags ("Native Blood"), and straight-up rippers ("Man Kills Mankind"), slipping only on slower material like the title track and quasi-ballad "Cold Embrace."

The repetition of downtuned breakdowns will probably tire even deathcore superfans by album’s end. Solid–but this Witch could use a few new tricks.

Josh Homme and fellow Queens Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Fertita, and Michael Shuman have gotten back on beam for the band’s first album in six years, apparently rediscovering the joys of creating robotic, riff-oriented hard-rock songs.

At times, this straightforward approach, along with a smoother production sound, strips the Massachusetts quartet of the nuanced breakdowns and guitar leads that made their previous material so captivating.

The heshers who crave this Viking death-march death-metal will have it, and those who aren't inspired by what they stream on the internet won't. Even with a lesser work, Amon Amarth have done their job.

Malkmus remains up to his usual trickery, packing the proceedings with musical plot twists like false starts, abrupt fades, and fake codas. [#4, p.106]

As always, Fernow offers a challenge with his music. Those who accept it will be rewarded with an intensely vital listen.

They sound utterly repellant, and it suits them perfectly.

Folks like to hate on the BDM, labeling them part of the problem because they use neon colors on their T-shirts, but death-metal fans who want something different and exciting need look no further.

Tracks like “Thorns” and “Dancing in Madness” continue the band’s patented crossbreed of smoky chugs and far-out sonic filigrees, furthering the emotional edge of their sound. For others, the band’s tendency towards soaring prettiness instead of sludge punishment might make Heartless a little light-handed, lacking the full steamroller crush of classic stoner rock outfits.

The result: a crushing musical experience easily among the year's best extreme-metal records.

At Night We Live represents an older, slightly sleazier, but still poetically earnest far. [May/Jun 2010, p.98]

The band’s primary objective is to lift listeners off their feet and keep them floating, with only occasional handholds for stability.

As always, the Kurt Ballou production gives the album the depth and punch that it deserves, making this the band’s most dangerous declaration to date.

Russian Circles deliver seven glorious cuts of cinematic elegance and regal thunder. Not to mention what might be its best album yet.

For all of Recitiation's slow burners, ferocious cuts like "Pieces Of The Moon..." and Worm Heels..." go hard from start to finish, revisiting the band's hardcore roots. [Nov/Dec 2010, p.98]

Somehow, though, every song eventually leads to Myles Kennedy keening dramatically over guitar sturm und drang, and while that nicely showcase the band’s songwriting and instrumental skills, after a while it becomes predictable and monotonous.

Luckily, MLIW are excellent students and practitioners of the style [melodic post-hardcore that lurked on the outer edges of emo].

Fire From the Sky is suitably heavy, grim but not ridiculous, and its best songs will remind listeners of Metallica.

Shone saws off a series of heaving, mechanized drones with names like “The Barge,” “Cauterize” and “Teething,” each a dizzying, pulsating and pounding exposition of man’s ultimate sonic collusion with machine.

Not the most fashionable influences, obviously, yet Digital Resistance feels more like real rebellion than a lot of modern metal.

Guitarists Zack Hansen and Tony Pizzuti not only provide massive crunch and harmonized leads but further fatten the sound with backing vocals and programming, an arsenal that can swell the sonics to near-symphonic grandeur.

By turns melodic and thunderous, White Silence churns with 8-minute power dirges and soars with Beatles-esque hooks, making for an exhilarating musical rollercoaster that demands repeat spins.

Whether Snakes For The Divine is the band's best album yet is open to debate, but it's certainly their biggest, burliest, and most devastating. [Mar/Apr 2010, p.90]

Unsurprisingly, it sounds exactly like Teri Gender Bender fronting The Melvins--a fascinating concept in theory that turns out to be deliriously satisfying in practice.

Think of Five Serpent's Teeth as a taste of the past recaptured.

At once dense and cacophonous, bleak and thunderous, Rwake's latest aspires toward the sonic-cosmic apex personified by Neurosis--and comes mighty close.

Make no mistake, this album is not invoking bluegrass meadows and rolling hills. Instead, the stage is set to the cacophonous sound of Kentucky’s coalmines and devastating tornadoes for one helluva tale.

Where the first half of Jasta is, well, Jasta, the album's latter tunes find the vocalist bringing in guests--with somewhat mixed results. [Jul/Aug 2011, p.87]

By-the-numbers breakdowns, tired metalcore riffing, and cliched lyrics are still very much part of the group's formula. It's too bad since the band has plenty of energy and ambition. [Nov/Dec 2010, p.94]

Of course the technical musicianship of the EP is top notch, but the form is what’s most striking.

Frontman Scott Lucas tackles the polarized political scene in crunchy riff-rock jams full of Windy City references; in "Blue Line," a ride on public transit inspires thoughts on how "it's getting hard to realize a sense of self in other eyes." Heaviness (in both senses) abounds.

Bleeder is equal parts musical acrobatics and strong songwriting that strikes an off-kilter balance somewhere between Queens of the Stone Age and The Dillinger Escape Plan.

While the album has its share of radio-friendly anthems like "A Lifeless Ordinary," the real standouts on the band's fourth full-length are the grittier, unexpected moments such as the sinisterly syncopated "Hysteria" or post-hard-core masterpiece "Disappear." [Mar/Apr 2010, p.90]

The year has only just begun, but if there is one metal album to purchase in 2011 so far, this is it.

From start to finish, Beast is a return to form for DevilDriver, delivering their patented mix of pummeling and soaring melodic death metal soaked in a healthy vat of groove.

It's a surprising, thoroughly consistent return-to-form, and it makes Oddfellows the first contender for hard-rock album of the year.

est in its execution and ambitious in its scope, The Thousandfold Epicentre is an otherworldly journey to spaces both familiar and alien.

Vocalist Travis Ryan fully comes out of his shell with his, ahem, "melodic" "singing" and the Jeff Walker–esque tone sounds great (see "Lifestalker"). Elsewhere, the band shred harder than ever but with lots of cool twists.

Tightly coiled shredfests like "Cognitive Suicide" and "Devil's Creek" demonstrate how much they've grown up (without mellowing out) since their early-'90s skate-rat days.

Even at its worst, Darker Handcraft rips harder than almost anything else that has come out this year so far. And for that, it deserves any metal, hardcore, or punk fans' attention.

No matter how aggressive the instrumentation, the music always manages to push things forward, as showcased by the avant-orchestral finale, "The Abyss."

In the end, Ultraviolet’s finest moments occur when Kylesa venture farthest from their proven strengths and step into the unknown.

In all, Wasting Light is almost a summation of where the band has been, as well as a convincing statement of why, nearly 20 years since they came together, Grohl & Co. are yet a force to be reckoned with, still influential and still relevant.

Transcendence, the seventh release by his group is a diverse, multi-hued, cinematic offering that incorporates elements of prog, psychedelia, orchestral, and operatic metal without ever losing grasp of the importance of strong melodies.

Our Own Masters delivers all the hairy, sweaty, twin-guitar insanity of their live shows, yet also contains some of their most unabashedly sophisticated moments.

August Burns Red have set their own bar even higher on Leveler, and have done so for all of their scene in the process. The album is certainly among the most memorable releases so far this year.

With this latest (featuring the return of New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert on vocals), they prove it all still works in a big way, a sign that they’ve been doing it right all along.

Sometimes it sounds like someone grafted the Who's Live at Leeds and the first Minor Threat EP together. Yes, it's that good. [#2, p.103]

Standards is a mature work in the best sense, an example of a rock band--yes, a rock band--that has grown into its sound and is now relaxed enough to have fun with it. [#4, p.107]

Cleveland metallic-hardcore heavyweights Ringworm have delivered what should stand as their finest entry in their catalogue.

The Fire showcases an immense growth in both the band's songwriting and arrangements, proving that these scenes stalwarts are not about to rest on their laurels. [Nov/Dec 2010, p.98]

Aftershock is another worthy entry into Motörhead’s long discography, with 14 rollicking tracks of brawn, broads, and blazing riffs.

Aficionados will love picking out the differences between these early takes and the final album mixes.

Whether it’s the Nine Inch Nails-meets John Coltrane scree of “The Last Stand,” the avant-jazz experimentation of “House of Warship” or the trippy classic rock hooks and ominous ambient drones of “House of Control,” IBS makes Marilyn Manson sound as rebellious as Ed Sheeran.

Sacred attaches sleazy biker blues, perilous fuzz rock and libidinous punk to swaggerin’ doom as age and experience channel youthful days, questionable decisions and collapsed veins while avoiding tragedy to kick ass like 1978 never went away.

The result is the least Insomnium-sounding record of its discography.

Guest appearances from Gojira’s Joe Duplantier and Subrosa violinists Sarah Pendleton and Kim Pack add extra nuance to an already dense masterpiece.

The tracks complement each other and build a cohesive piece of art. Between the Buried and Me are on a level of songwriting skill that few bands can hope to reach, and their new EP epitomizes the band's talent.

The band's fourth album sees them further stepping away from their Warped Tour roots to craft a disc that's teeming with emotion without falling on emo clichés.

Although it's been a full decade since their last release, United by Fate, Rival Schools don't miss a beat on this reunion disc. [Mar/Apr 2011, p. 88]

Frontman King Buzzo's guitar is searingly loud and untethered to studio tricks, more weapon than instrument, making 13 deadly songs even more venomous.

What drives the music is the tightly synched interplay between drums and guitars, and that, particularly as sharpened by Wes Hauch's surgically precise lead work.

Warbeast impresses with their modern thrash aesthetics, but Anselmo's contribution is the selling point to War of the Gargantuas.

TDWP's "sufferings" are modern-metal fans' "glory."

For all their masks and uniforms, the emotions at the heart of Slipknot’s music have always been real and raw, and as they--and the audience that’s grown up with them--have no doubt discovered, the youthful angst that fired their early records has nothing on the grim realities of adulthood. From that deep well of pain, another great Slipknot record has emerged.

Anyone worried that the last decade had dulled TBS' edge, a listen to the post-hardcore rager "El Paso" confirms that it's never been sharper.

Calling the album a return to form does Skeletonwitch injustice, but the blackened thrashers definately sound rein quintet definitely sounds reinvigorated here.

The second full-length offering from The Shine finds the Chuck Dukowski–approved Los Angeles skater/stoner-rock trio more or less picking up where their last album, 2012′s Primitive Blast, left off.

Sure, White Crosses is the most polished and pop-inflected album of Against Me!'s polarizing punk career--but underneath the studio sheen, the Butch Vig-produced disc also contains some of the band's best material to date. [Jul/Aug 2010, p.92]

Between the Stars is tight and melodic and unrelentingly hook-driven, poppy enough in places to recall Paramore or even (on the great new single “Set Me on Fire”) a more ferocious No Doub

Royal Thunder display a soulful sonic acumen that's as dynamic as it is compelling.