Where 07’s ‘Is Dead’ hinted at the band experimenting with a more progressive sound, it was nowhere near as cohesive and accomplished as this. I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone is a phenomenal album.

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.

This is a ruthless, heartbreaking and agonisingly profound release from a truly unrivalled band.

A right dirty dose of LA rocking is in order courtesy of Buckcherry, and boy, is it great to have them back!

What Fucked Up have done here is to take what they've been honing for the past 10 years and go one better, adding lush female vocals and celestial, electronica-inspired effects in an effort to constantly titillate and surprise.

The Computers' impressive debut is a riotous, riff-laden affair.

Blink-182 have delivered an album that recalls everything that makes this band great and gives it all a fresh twist, the end result is California being amongst the best albums they’ve ever produced.

Spiral Shadow might just be the album of the year so far. All hail the kings (and queen) of nouveau-prog.

If world leaders, corporate douche-monkeys and the 1 per cent could just hear Fang Island, there would be no war, inequality or bad vibes.

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

The dark-hued, hard rocking glory of 'Sinead' and the Evanescence-bothering theatrics of 'A Demon's Fate' should draw Within Temptation a wider audience, but it's the ferocious guitar/keyboard attack of the blazing 'In The Middle Of The Night' that might coax most bullet belts out of retirement.

Glasgow’s finest nerdtronica--in the sense they’re slavishly dedicated to unveiling ever-intricate ways to make us shake a leg – quartet have returned with a second album that takes the charm of their debut and cranks up the rave factor.

Listening to the album when fully engaged with the story of its creation is both exhausting and exhilarating. A heartbreaking work of staggering genius? Very possibly.

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

Featuring two members of the late great Jay Reatard's band--the towering garage rawk that defined his sound is tangible with Wavves too but here left to bathe in the sun and taken for a quick dip in the ocean.

Full of textured, wide-screen soundscapes, the record dips its feet in electronic waters, yet retains the emotional vulnerability that has always defined the Atlanta band. There’s an extra dose of sinister unease, too, especially on ‘Lead, SD’ and ‘The Moth’.

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.

This long-awaited second album isn’t just thrilling from start to finish: it might also be exactly what rock needs right now.

These are songs of excruciating truth, eternally relevant and assembled with no lack of heart.

It's a pleasure to report, then, that Hurley is a fine album.

It sparkles with invention, creativity, crushing use of dynamics and, when all's said and done, just really strong songs.

This is a classic Bosstones album; a record that rises above the notion of categorisation and which anyone with a pulse will find it impossible not to warm to.

To some it will seem cloying and trite, but persevere: underneath Scott Hutchison’s warm burr lie a clutch of songs that deserve to be held close and tight.

This full length contains all of Bleeding Through’s hardcore malice only now it’s encased with a perfected, extremity-heavy formula.

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.

Whatever's being said, though, what's great about The King Blues is that they're always unashamedly frank; with a frontman who wouldn't dream of diverging his accent or over-developing his message, they've set storming music to a totally concise, relevant stream of consciousness.

There's a glorious new depth to the old formula here showcasing undeniable talent.

There's enough excitement and progression here to make Chasing Ghosts a worthwhile look.