Overall, Max & Co. keep things tasty on Savages.

Sometimes, Blood's industrial metal is the kind that got overdone a decade ago. Still, it's a mostly good set-and a cool comeback for Seinfeld.

Unfortunately, every song ends up sounding too similar, even as the band breaks, as always, from black metal's norms.

Despite some high points, this is hardly the definitive live Springsteen album. [May/June 2001, p.116]

A 12-song set that went through a couple of permutations but still bristles with industrial-strength angst.

OWTH aren’t covering ground that Against Me! or the Bouncing Souls haven’t already tread in the past, but there’s a palpable passion in frontman Ryan Young’s voice that keeps these songs sounding inspired for the duration of the record.

An inconsistent record with flashes of brilliance, In Waves should keep diehard Trivium fans happy.

British Lion might surprise longtime Ed Heads in that it's more redolent of the sort of '80s hard-rock bands who dominated the radio waves when Maiden couldn't, like Dokken and even Whitesnake.

While her vocals alone are unlikely to gain Within Temptation too many new listeners, fans who have stuck with the band throughout their career will likely forgive The Unforgiving's occasional missteps.

Too bad that, even at its best, this Atlas maps well-trodden ground.

While spirited in their performance, this brutal quartet lack the dynamism and versatility of label-mates Dying Fetus.

While the album will please the band's fans, it doesn't stand out from similar releases in the subgenre today. [Jul/Aug 2011, p.92]

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]

While this will probably please Bleeding Through's fans, sticking with the path most traveled doesn't result in a particularly memorable record.

The tracks on Halo of Blood sound more like computerized vessels for showing off their considerable skills than songs played by actual human beings.

From the lumbering “Lungs” to doomy, dynamically intense epics such as “On Wretched Son,” “Swarming Funeral Mass,” and “See No Shelter Fevered Ones,” the relentless sturm and drang is not for the faith of heart, and there’s always a sneaking sense that Twilight is making this stuff up as it goes along.

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.

While the formula may sound intriguing, lackluster songwriting makes much of the record sound repetitive and uninspired.

A prog-intensive album that often sounds closer to soggy Jethro Tull outtakes than anything in his band’s mighty back catalog.

The bottom line: Emery may have done what they wanted, but that doesn't mean that listeners will want the result-at least, not all of it.

Unfortunately, the toidy humor isn't funny, and the introspective songs aren't that relevatory. [#3, p.105]

It’s considerably more difficult to listen to than ‘Aesthetica’--the vocals often sound like a skipping CD--and largely forsakes that album’s triumphal feel for grating noise mash-ups (“Follow” and “Follow II”), angular electro jams (“Quetzalcoatl”) and synthetic horns (“Fanfare”).

With Shelter, Alcest have abandoned bracing storm bursts, leaving a too monotonous calm.