It’s another richly woven tapestry of dark-hearted fare which draws on influences as disparate as The Pet Shop Boys and Ministry with aplomb.

This album does ooze quality though and has enough flourishes of originality to keep the quartet moving forward, but perhaps even more importantly for the band, their fans (and us, for that matter), the wait is over.

The Shadow Side contains some of the best material the man has been responsible for and proves Mr Biersack is one of the most captivating figures in music today.

The resulting sound is one of wistful melancholia, designed for dark rooms, loud headphones and the flickering feeling that while life can be shitty at times, there’s always a chance to find happiness.

The dweeb-core champs’ songs might as well come with a ‘kick me’ sign pinned to them, but the depth and quality of Holy Ghost is an exercise in kicking back and refusing to be defeated.

This is a worthy follow-up. Its 12 sultry, sumptuous songs see Brennan Greaves and Britty Drake swap turns singing over a wash of fuzzy, forlorn guitars.

It’s a disappointing, day and night affair compared to the soaring triumph of last year’s ‘Joy, Departed.’

The Wilderness is the perfect title, too; the album’s nine songs exploring an expansive, evocative range of sounds, grooves, peaks and valleys. Which is to say, this is something really quite special.

Dragging their new wave and post-punk influences to the fore, the Sacramento crew have produced their most dynamic, adventurous and downright strange album in years.

The elephant in the room though, is new vocalist Denis Stoff, and the questions over his ability to replace a gifted albeit difficult frontman. Largely, his quest is a triumphant one, and he turns in an admirable performance.

This album seamlessly flits from one brilliantly bold idea to another with no dips in quality.

The Summer Set have conjured up a bubblegum-stained blast of modern pop rock that sounds just as good at the start of the weekend as it does at the end.

No, this isn’t Weezer at their world-altering best, but it is the sound of a band who have at least re-opened the door to the cupboard where their magic formula is kept.

An alluring, seductive listen that might take a while to get under your skin, but once there will point blank refuse to leave.

It’s bracing, familiar and flat-out exhausting all at the same time.

Though nowhere near the monolithic, bottled lightning of ‘The ’59 Sound’, this is a return to the Brian Fallon the rock world fell trucker caps over Chuck Taylors in love with.

This Is War is passionate, rousing and astonishingly focused.

Every note here sounds like the logical conclusion to the evolution of each preceding record--a remarkable achievement.

Rather than feeling like a mash-up of their favourite bands--which is no bad thing--album two finds the four-man phenomenon firming up their identity and becoming their own band.

It’s a 43-minute blast of ingenious, future-proof rock, virtually flawless but from a band that--importantly--are still flawed like the rest of us. This is the best album you’ll hear this year and more significantly, it’s the most important rock album of the decade.

The Ohio pop-punks are on their finest form in years here.

e – BSC are at their best with a sledgehammer riff and Magic Mountain is full of them.

Ixora is an impressive revival that shows there’s life in these stalwarts yet.

Even after 20 years in the game, there are still few better. Welcome back, sirs.

Unfocused and indistinct, this is an awkward transition that skews towards by-numbers radio-rock.

Although parts of the album’s lower key, electronica-laced back end get a little overawed by the grandeur of the project they accompany, for the most part this is Angels & Airwaves at their most ballsy and creative.

While not everything works--‘Dorian’ goes nowhere in particular and the assorted amateurish synths on show grate on the nerves and feel like an afterthought--this is rarely less than compelling.

This album is a fine introduction to one of the scene’s most exciting and original new bands. Keep an eye on this lot.

Topping 2012’s ‘Get What You Give’ wasn’t going to be easy, but The Ghost Inside have kept up the momentum at the very least.

Though it doesn’t boast the bounce, style or solid gold hooks that we’ve come to expect from this lot, it’s the raw honesty found on There’s Nothing With Me that exhibits a level of songwriting and maturity that’s slowly pushing them ahead of their peers.

Though it’s still very early doors, Seaway could have just put in a strong claim as the first pop-punk breakthrough of 2015.

While this may not be the straight-up punk that fans of 2012’s ‘Two Year Plan’ know and love, Such Gold are showing a thirst for progression, and that’s not something to be sniffed at.

Occupying a middle-ground between the thrashy, riff-a-minute assault of ’95 and the Gothenburg band’s earlier, darkly atmospheric releases, these 13 tracks form a cohesive and consistently evocative whole.

Duality is a full-blown orchestral dance-pop masterpiece that will make you throw your arms in the air with glee, even if you think you should know better.

Nobody does dreamy indie patter quite like this.

They’ve succeeded in making a devastatingly heavy record that, bar the odd predictable breakdown, manages to steer clear of deathcore clichés and sets them apart from their peers.

A lofty debut effort indeed.

Negative Qualities might be uncomfortable listening, but it’s also entrancing, from the scrawny punk rock jams to the Nirvana-esque ‘Feel Shame’ or the surprisingly tuneful late-’90s emo of ‘Money’.

Motionless In White’s third full-length sees them firming up the sound they settled on with last album ‘Infamous’, but with varying degrees of success.

Born of isolation and introspection, Stomachaches is hugely likeable, and leaves everything on the table.

This is a lethargic, dull attempt at writing an album from a band that sound like they’ve forgotten how to do just that.

Is ninth record ‘Everything Will Be Alright In The End’ in the same league as 1994’s Blue Album or its follow up ‘Pinkerton’? Not quite, but it gives it a good go.

While it might leave your average post-rock fan will crave a bit of misery, Fair Youth is an undeniably engaging listen.

There’s hope in bouncy standout ‘Carry The Sorrow’, but this album is okay, and not much else.

With barely a weak song in sight, the Brighton duo have delivered a collection of tracks of taut, visceral quality.

The almost unbearably intense ‘Slowburn’ and ambient ‘My World’ are just two cuts of an album littered with highlights, meaning by the end of this 33-minute pummeling, you’ll only need one word: breathtaking.

As flashy as ever, the band have shaped their jumble of ideas into a more coherent, if eccentric whole.

Reign Of Terror will filter into the middle ground of obscurity amid countless other albums from bands of a similar ilk.

The fact that this album is full to bursting with ideas means there are almost certain to be missteps, but the likes of acoustic-led snorefest ‘Father / Son’ are thankfully few and far between on this bracing debut.

Pure metal it ain’t. Pure fun, it sure is.

Half-panicked, half-anthemic ‘Runnin’ Scared’ aside, this is all a little meek, but that’s kind of the idea.

The downside is they’ve lost a little of their trademark lo-fi fuzz, but singer Mariel Loveland’s lyrics stand out as more succinct and immediate this time around.

The Massachusetts quartet are back with a new EP that reminds us what made them so exciting in the first place.

While the majority of tracks like ‘FML’ and ‘The Weigh Down’ continue in a similar vein, with crushing slabs of aggression offset by sing-from-the-rooftops choruses, the Aussies venture into less formulaic territory with ‘Forest Fire’ and ‘Give It All’, allowing Let The Ocean Take Me to work out its own identity.

Galloping metalcore anthem ‘You Want Me’ shows flashes of brilliance, too, but it’s difficult to escape the nagging feeling that their fourth record is the sound of a great band spreading themselves far too thinly.

Clouded is possibly the most beautiful record about heartbreak you’ll hear all year.

It’s a clutch of sharp, abrasive punk anthems, underpinned by tight, funk-tinged rhythms.

From start to finish there’s almost nothing to fault here.

It’s nowhere near as hot as the real prime stuff the early ’80s gave us (Poison Idea, Void, Tar Babies, that sort of thing) and still lags behind the young ‘uns who’re keeping the genre fresh and vital.

The production allows the introspective oddness of Soto’s lyrics to show through better, lending them a really likeable, stand-out character.

It’s album number three from Steel Panther and no surprise, it’s ridiculous spoof-splattered business as usual.

Though this offering doesn’t quite live up to genre-busting, career-defining predecessor ‘Gospel’, engaging, inventive albums like this are yet more proof that pop-punk’s renaissance won’t fade away any time soon.

Those familiar intricacies are thankfully still present and correct and the direct approach undoubtedly suits a band still full of ideas.

This record could slot into any punk rock fan’s record collection in the last 15 years and get worn out--it’s just great, timeless songwriting.

Die Without Hope shows them at their most uncompromising, bleak and arse-splittingly heavy.

Individually, tracks like ‘Hymn To The Pillory’ and ‘Somersault’ aren’t particularly staggering, but as a whole body of work it really is something else.

Lost Forever, Lost Together is the sound of Architects finding and unleashing the buried treasure they’ve been searching for.

Beloved is both a reincarnation of old and a lesson in modern metalcore that makes IKTPQ the oldest newcomers to stake their claim for 2014.

Twin Forks is an album of freedom and exploration, the sound of people taking risks for the sake of song. We like that.

Some of the live tracks on here are a little scratchy sounding but re-worked versions of ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘The Queen Of Lower Chelsea’ quieten any simmering cynicism about the point of this record.

The Poles’ most infectious work as it bristles with the best songs they’ve ever written.

ATB have found a collective cutting edge that’s both extreme and versatile.

Rave Tapes is a diverse and supremely confident record.

Stoke Extinguisher offers both food for thought and fuel for the pit; cheap gags jostle for space with anti-establishment rhetoric and a wry sense of self-depreciation.

Beastmilk have created a seductively dark slab of post-punk which manages to not take itself too seriously, while still being brilliant enough for it not to become comical. And that’s a fine balance.

Partycrasher is still overflowing with singalong moments and air guitar opportunities that should remind you why A Wilhelm Scream are one of the best punk bands we’ve ever had.

This time around there’s more screaming and distortion a la ‘Jupiter’-era Cave In (‘The Refusal’), which somehow compliments the more melodic tracks here and only adds to what’s on offer.

While not quite as cack as recent efforts by Bad Brains or DYS, it still defies belief that this should ever see the light of day.

Overall, it’s a decent summer barbecue soundtrack, but hardly vintage Sublime.

Ghost B.C.’s first effort at a covers EP is another difficult, tedious listen.

Common Courtesy is not the end of this band. If anything, it’s their new beginning.

Overall, it’s an impressive progression on all counts.

A stinging reprise of ’93’s ‘American Jesus’ serves as a timely reminder that these perennial bastions of articulate dissent haven’t gone soft on us quite yet.

It’s not a progressive album per se, but The Finer Things is a bar-raising attempt at revolution in pop-punk.

Philly troubadour Dave Hause’s sophomore platter manages to stand proud while casually dipping into drive-time radio (‘Same Disease’) and blue collar balladry (‘Before’).

While it doesn’t quite compete with the very best their genre has produced this year, There Used To Be A Place For Us slots comfortably into the folder marked Perfectly Acceptable 2013 Pop-Punk.

The post-hiatus band are still angry and have something to say.... Welcome back, gang.

Korn’s follow up to ’11’s dubstep-infused ‘The Path Of Totality’ is a completely different monster to its predecessor, and for all the right reasons.

Though perhaps overly mechanical, Vengeance Falls remains compelling and staggeringly textured.

Short of any psychotropic assistance, Wild Light is a credible substitute for nirvana, demanding you suspend your disbelief and just jump in feet first, setting yourself free from all corporeal existence.

his is polished, assured pop-rock custom built for massive stages and even bigger singalongs, and both are no doubt in the pipeline.

Crossfaith’s debut full-length, Apocalyze proves more than worthy of the hype surrounding them.

It’s their use of modern electronica (‘Unmade’) and metalcore crunch (‘Paper Thin’) that asserts this as bleeding-edge relevant, and there’s enough spark here to suggest they could turn into more than a nostalgia trip.

It’s the newfound multi-layered vocals of Mike Hranica and Jeremy DePoyster that give tracks like ‘War’ and ‘Sailor’s Prayer’ a compelling dexterity of textures and allows each track to venture into previously uncharted territory with the utmost conviction.

48 minutes that will go down among the very best of this year.

While this style of Appleseed Cast-esque, classic Deep Elm indie-rock can require a bit more long-term buy-in than noisier, brasher and more immediately gratifying records, the resulting pay-off is rewarding.

For an album that led the charge in early-’00s pop-punk, it’s worth a spin or two, if only for the memories it’ll bring back.

If you had ever written the band off or traded them in for a younger model, this is the record that will force you to reconsider and repent.