Rock Sound's Scores

  • Music
For 497 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 67% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 30% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 75
Highest review score: 100 That's the Spirit
Lowest review score: 20 Bright Black Heaven
Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 2 out of 497
497 music reviews
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    While it might leave your average post-rock fan will crave a bit of misery, Fair Youth is an undeniably engaging listen.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With barely a weak song in sight, the Brighton duo have delivered a collection of tracks of taut, visceral quality.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    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.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    As flashy as ever, the band have shaped their jumble of ideas into a more coherent, if eccentric whole.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pure metal it ain’t. Pure fun, it sure is.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    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.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Massachusetts quartet are back with a new EP that reminds us what made them so exciting in the first place.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    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.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Clouded is possibly the most beautiful record about heartbreak you’ll hear all year.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s a clutch of sharp, abrasive punk anthems, underpinned by tight, funk-tinged rhythms.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    From start to finish there’s almost nothing to fault here.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The production allows the introspective oddness of Soto’s lyrics to show through better, lending them a really likeable, stand-out character.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It’s album number three from Steel Panther and no surprise, it’s ridiculous spoof-splattered business as usual.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    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.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Those familiar intricacies are thankfully still present and correct and the direct approach undoubtedly suits a band still full of ideas.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Die Without Hope shows them at their most uncompromising, bleak and arse-splittingly heavy.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    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.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Lost Forever, Lost Together is the sound of Architects finding and unleashing the buried treasure they’ve been searching for.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Twin Forks is an album of freedom and exploration, the sound of people taking risks for the sake of song. We like that.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    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.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Poles’ most infectious work as it bristles with the best songs they’ve ever written.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ATB have found a collective cutting edge that’s both extreme and versatile.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rave Tapes is a diverse and supremely confident record.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    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.