Rock Sound's Scores

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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. Positive: 435 out of 497
  2. Mixed: 60 out of 497
  3. Negative: 2 out of 497
497 music reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Things We Think We're Missing
    48 minutes that will go down among the very best of this year.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Total Life Forever
    Baffling yet hum-able at the same time, this is the work of a band without a clue where they're going, and it's all the stronger for it.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Fatal Feast
    The Fatal Feast might fall short of improvement, but for headbanging, whiplash-inducing chaos there are still few better than the Waste.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ex Lives
    This is a deafening, destructive and devilishly diverse affair, serving as a firm and timely reminder that when it comes to this particular game, nobody does it quite like this.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Leveler
    As ever, their songs are structured, paced and technically advanced in a way that's leagues above much of this genre.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    All In My Head [EP]
    Though it’s still very early doors, Seaway could have just put in a strong claim as the first pop-punk breakthrough of 2015.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bloodsweat
    An alluring, seductive listen that might take a while to get under your skin, but once there will point blank refuse to leave.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Home Inside My Head
    There may be fewer hooks and a lack of a real fist-in-the-air anthem, but on The Home Inside My Head, these sad boys become men. Gracefully.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mothership
    The band’s mad formula is familiar now, but there’s still enough experimentation here to keep things interesting.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fail You Again
    If they can combine the desperate urgency demonstrated on that first EP (which is a little diminished here) with the more finely-crafted songwriting they’re moving towards, they will be swimming onward, rather than sinking, for a long while to come.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Major
    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.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Painkillers
    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.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
    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.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere
    In short To Be Everywhere... is another triumphant step for a band whose two-decade growth from able but impetuous riff merchants to purveyors of truly ambitious art has been nothing short of inspiring.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Several Shades of Why
    The result is a beautifully fragile acoustic record that positions him as the missing link between Kurt Cobain and Johnny Cash.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Emperor of Sand
    Few bands out there twist metal into such bewildering, bewitching shapes, and--somehow--there’s little sign of their well running dry.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    First Ditch Effort
    While some of these songs may not be up to the standard of their world-beating best, it’s clear they’re still having a lot of fun.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Special Moves/Burning
    As fans of the group will attest, there's nothing quite like experiencing Mogwai in a live setting and while Special Moves might never fully capture that sheer weight of sound, it nevertheless represents a hugely impressive live document (even without Burning, the accompanying DVD).
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Guilty of Everything
    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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    All the Ways You Let Me Down
    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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Root For Ruin
    Root For Ruin is a worthy continuation of their oeuvre, and a better album than 07's "Let's Stay Friends."
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    AFI (The Blood Album)
    This is the sound of a band re-discovering the aggression that made them so great in the first place, and applying it ably to their new template.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Negative Qualities
    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’.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Royal Blood
    With barely a weak song in sight, the Brighton duo have delivered a collection of tracks of taut, visceral quality.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    At War with Reality
    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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rock & Roll
    Far from being an inter-album stop-gap, this EP represents nothing less than the fruits of a musical brain that simply doesn't know how to stop creating goodness.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Signed and Sealed in Blood
    It's the Bostonians' simplicity that's most endearing though, and this is a terrific, hangover-inducing return to form.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
    Put simply, this is another wonderful release from a brilliant band.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Deerhoof Vs. Evil
    Their songs, while essentially playful and lovable--more so than ever on Vs Evil, the San Francisco band's 10th album, which features near-lounge music moments--have a hard centre and are often tricky to parse, thanks in no small part to Satomi Matsuzaki's lyrics.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ancestral Star
    Lonesome guitars wend their way through the shimmer of rising heat, synth swells collapse into dust and a plaintive violin calls to a long-lost lover, all of which twines itself together to form a rich experimental drone that's as vast, lonely and unending as the desert images they conjure.
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