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

Wherever Tombs travel, they create evocative metallic nightmares most of their contemporaries only dream of crafting.

The songs here have every frequency not only covered but cranked to 11. That's a plus when the writing is equally heroic, as with "My Questions," "Born to Lose," or the stunning "Holdfast," but when the songs don't measure up melodically or thematically, as with the overly ornate "R.I.T.," the sonic heft only underscores the failings

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

As ever, frontman niVek ohGr manages to make his vocals just as laceratingly intense as the saturated distortion of the electronics, while the lyrics are as angry as they are eloquent.

Raucous and honest, this album rocks with their trademark down-home stoner swagger.

Producer Jens Bogren (Opeth, Amon Amarth) respectfully maintains the video game splendor that grabbed fans on 2006’s “Through the Fire and Flames,” but 'Reaching Into Infinity' shows this sextet still has more universes to explore.

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

On their eleventh studio album, CoF’s schlock-black metal sound is more alive than it has in a while.

Aptly named Queensrÿche, just like the band’s debut was titled 30 years ago, this album is a fresh new beginning of a revamped lineup that we will likely be hearing from for years to come.

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

Real demonstrates that, even as the group’s chosen subgenre has lost the trendiness it possessed in the ’00s, metalcore can still sound fresh and exciting when done right.

The Tyranny of Will is all aces, too: From politically-charged rippers (“In Greed We Trust,” “Patriotic Shock”) to pants-pissing punk mischief (“Eyeball Gore,” “Your Kid’s an Asshole”), Iron Reagan have got you covered.

Instead of Meanderthal's rich sonics and expansive melodies, Torche about-faces into bracing, aggressive cuts like "Cast into Unknown" and "U.F.O." and even though "Out Again" delves into sludgy pop, it's done in such a lackadaisical fashion that's it;s clear that Brooks' heart is more in the faster, louder numbers. [Sep/Oct 2010, p.90]

Undulating under shimmering waves of feedback is either a gorgeously fragile heavy metal record or the ballsiest Smashing Pumpkins ballads ever.

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]

On this solid, moving album, Wolves Like Us keep that tradition alive.

Musically, AOI melds the compufunk of 'Stakes' with the soulystics of the trio's earlier work, adding in a healthy supply of guitar twang to boot. [#2, p.109]

Alternating between unsettling dissonance and bludgeoning force, the North American act’s sophomore effort showcases a crossbreed of stoner metal, sludge and noise that both enthralls and frightens the listener.

One of the Melvins’ most diverse and melodic, flirting with New Wave, glam metal, and psychobilly between epic guitar jams and gleefully twisted epics such as the closing “House of Gasoline.”

Meandering and dirge-like, the eight songs here live up to the band's moniker, weaving slow and snaky through the album's 42 minutes and what we can only presume is a veritable wall of amplification. Tune in and nod out.

Polaris is, at last, the platonic ideal of a TesseracT album, the one where they get everything just right.

Godless Prophets is as driven and vicious as anything the band has released with disembowlers like “This Is the Truth” and “Those Who Survived.”

Pressure & Time can bog down in its own retro pretensions, but singer Jay Buchanan is an undeniable vocal force.

For the most part the album successfully rides the line between innovation and self-indulgence. In other words, if given a chance Desolation Sounds will challenge listeners as much as inspire circle pits.

While Green’s falsetto is immediately distinctive, a pop-tinged ballad like “The Stutter Says a Lot” and the blazing screamo anthem “The Secret Meaning of Freedom” stand on their own as fully formed compositions. Second acts don’t usually sound this sweet.

The Wilson sisters comes out swinging old-school style with a full-throttle title track that sets the tone for the bulk of their 14th studio album.

A 72-minute concept album that includes some of its freshest material yet, but also some of its dullest.

Thus rejuvenated and recharged, the Metal God and his cohorts have delivered their strongest record in over a decade.

X (No Absolutes) is charged with brawn and brains--thrashy dynamics, chunky grooves, ferocious metal energy, and Tommy Victor’s sharp-tongued socio-political observations.

Fever Daydream may not be for everyone but there’s something about album’s inherent vulnerability that continues to resonate long after it ends.

These ominous minor-key workouts routinely change direction on a dime, not unlike a tornado or a hurricane.

Nestled among these dozen tracks, though, is also some of the band's handsomest, most expansive music yet. [Mar/Apr 2011, p.88]

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

Backed by a bevy of sublime, aggravated tracks, G.O.A.T. is L.L.'s most aggressive, rhyme-centric effort since Radio. [#2, p.112]

Ultimately these well-place segues are but a welcome respite from the pummeling power of the riff.

An evolution in sound from its debut album, Blues Pills serve up a masterful mix of soul and blues-rock that ferments into a tasty, tasty witches’ brew.

45 minutes of jagged, uneven music that includes sparks of urgent genius, and perhaps five or six seconds that border on legitimate transcendence. [Nov/Dec 2001, p.117]

Like the classic horror movies that have inspired so much of Danzig's work, the new record delivers the thrills and chills that fans would hope for, and that Danzig, at his best, is so good at serving up. [Jul/Aug 2010, p.88]

A welcome return.

Despite Chamberlain’s strong pipes and pedigree, Broken Compass lacks the umph and innovation to be something truly exceptional.

Songs like “Heaven, Hell and Purgatory” will beat you down only to lift you up again, it’s a sonic ride worth taking.

Nearly perfectly formed, a confident showing of pristine, heartfelt songs that stand up alone and gain greater strength in the context of the full album, which ebbs and flows in a great purge of emotions. [#3, p.120]

Post-hardcore fans will certainly enjoy what is Falling in Reverse’s strongest record to date.

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.

Warp Riders staunchly maintains the stoner doom, chugging trash, and ruminating psychedelia that marked the four-piece's 2006 debut, Age Of Winters. Yet the boogie-rock feel of "Tres Brujas" and "Lawless Lands" diversifies their songs, recalling pre-Eliminator ZZ Top. [Jul/Aug 2010, p.88]

Vintage-sounding yet definitely on its own trip, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker brings a sense of spiritual uplift to its mind-expanding sonic explorations, feeding your ears and soul simultaneously.

All in all, the record perfectly captures the band live–which, as anyone who saw them on this summer’s Mayhem Fest knows, is an experience in itself.

It swings and swaggers like no Megadeth album in recent memory. [Nov/Dec 2011, p.87]

The second release from TBS’ reunited original lineup sees them getting their groove back.

“Our Finest Hour” is a speedy thrasher about being able to accept yourself in new situations. Actually, Overkill did just that with “Shine On,” which features fresh areas of groove, dynamics and lyrical contemplation.

The best odds and sods collected here are those on which they stray from relentless shouting.

Rainbow is definitely Sanchez's show: His dreamy vocals give all the fantasy crap real human warmth. [May/Jun 2010, p.966]

Frontman Mikael Akerfeldt's material is sunnier than usual, but still has room for synapse-stimulating musicianship.

In terms of its sound, it is far less exuberant than 'Bringing Down the Horse,' far more stripped-down and varied in its arrangements.

While the group's increasingly mid-paced heaviness reduces the number of showy frills and demonstrates a matured sense of melodic chops, it does make songs sound slightly repetitive by the album's end. Nevertheless, Khaos Legions will please longtime fans and probably find a few new ones for Arch Enemy

Eve ultimately transcends dog-bait stereotypes with an evolving sense of style that finds her waxing rough and cool one minute and warmly grooving along to reggae the next... [May/June 2001, p.108]

This is one that truly has us at hello--or at least at “Reset,” the opening track of Metal Church’s first album with singer Mike Howe since 1993’s ‘Hanging in the Balance.’

Consistently hot, this should tide fans over until the next patrol arrives in, oh, 2016.

Inscrutable concept aside, the new Heavy Rocks doesn't so much redefine heavy music as reconsolidate all the things fans already love about Boris.

A crafty update of California pop, shot through with the insights and ravings of a sometimes-lonely desert mystic.... Still, the disciplined songs of Trouble occasionally scream "Warning! Career Rehabilitation in Progress." [May/June 2001, p.105]

Lyrical references to Charles Bukowski and Elizabeth Carter score egghead points, but the real smarts are in the taut and tight delivery of the 10 tracks.

For all of its ferocity and force, though, Scurrilous is a surprisingly pleasant listen, in part due to frontman Rody Walker's high-pitched melodic vocals which belie the aggressiveness of the blistering guitars. Recommended, definitely. Diverse and innovative, definitely not.

In resurrecting their original sound, Filter get caught up in the same monotonous industrial atmosphere that kept Short Bus from being an essential album. [Sep/Oct 2010, p.92]

While the sound may flirt with alt-rock and electronica, the underlying sensibility is prog like BTBAM, in its melodic complexity and lyrical depth. Mar/Apr 2011, p.92]

For all its polish and sonic approachability, this is no sell-out record. Rescue may go down easy, but at the album's core, it's still an appealingly bitter pill.

Across 17 tracks with titles like “Dark Brown Teeth,” “The Blithering Idiot,” and “Drunken Baby,” Osborne delivers concise down-tuned ditties full of booming vocal melodies and bizarro humor.

Like their spiritual and sonic forefathers in Khanate, Asunder, and Buried at Sea, their music is bleak, crushing, and decidedly off-kilter.

Although none of its 13 tracks hit as hard as the early '80s, "mash"-pit ragers that made them famous, they still sound vital on the Rasta-praising punk pummeler "Popcorn" and the 88-second frenzy "Yes I."

It's melodic and Malevolent, a relentlessly good disc with an A.D.D. sufferer's list of pop-cultural obsessions ranging from Robocop to werewolves to Judas Priest. [May/Jun 2010, p.100]

They might be one drummer short of a full Melvins deck, but the resulting hand is almost entirely aces.

[The album] is their best in years, hitting upon just the right combination of melody, thrash, and hooks.

Crude, rude, filthy, and more infectious than a bad case of herpes--that sums up Balls Out, the new record from Hollywood's Steel Panther.

As eccentric as these tracks are, most of them wind up in a familiar place, with clean vocals ascending to growly, thundery choruses.

While not necessarily remarkable, The Dead of the World is a reliable slab of unspeakable evil, and bodes well for Ascension’s bright future in a grim subgenre.

Sounds of a Playground Fading hews closely to the melodic-death-metal-meets-alt-rock style these guys have spearheaded since 2002's Reroute to Remain, with crunchy riffs regularly giving way to soaring choruses that could seduce a Muse fan.

Removed from the usual metal trappings to ride Imperfect Harmonies' lofty, trippy soundscapes, Tankian's lyrics carry surprising poetic weight. [Sep/Oct 2010, p.87]

The Color Morale never strays too far from the tried-and-true tropes of their subgenre on full-length No. 3, but still manages to craft tunes that are passionate and memorable.

Back to Oblivion backs up the band’s 2012 reunion with a dozen melodically and dynamically diverse tracks.

Matthews finally takes a full-body plunge into the rock mainstream he'd only dipped a toe into before. [#4, p.105]

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

No one delivers big, punch-in-the-face motifs better than Amon Amarth, and the Swedish melodic-death-metal titans have excelled themselves on their ninth studio album.

Suffice it to say, Tears on Tape is a sentimentally sweet, sonically stunning, and beautifully packaged album.

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

This sprawling set would not be the ideal introduction to Guided by Voices... but Suitcase does provide a fascinating chronicle of one man's lifelong love affair with songwriting. [#2, p.104]

Bolstered further by very solid production, clever use of effects, and strong clean vocals, The Hollow is quite simply one of the best metalcore albums in a long time.

Interesting, but hardly the band that made Meantime. [Sep/Oct 2010, p.90]

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

Cynic’s shredders utilize their skills to construct great melodies and riffs, which often blossom into solid tunes that demand the listener’s attention.

While the record packs the occasional wallop, it loses steam in quieter moments ("Saving Grace") that sacrifice depth and density for pop hooks, due in part to predictable song structures.

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

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.

The Constant is best when going fast and loud, keeping your heart racing (and your mind off the subpar lyrics), but it loses momentum with cookie cutter ballad "holding On To You and a track, "Remember A Time," that oddly sounds more like Weezer than Warped Tour. [Mar/Apr 2010, p.92]

The result of all these change-ups is an album that is both aggressive and progressive, while still maintaining Linkin Park’s innate pop sensibility.

The album tells a loose story about a man breaking up with his girlfriend but the songs are written in a way that work outside of the narrative, too.

If success means overpowering the senses with creepy, captivating dissonance, KEN Mode are clutching a real triumph.

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.

This restless Texas prog-metal outfit, best known as the former protégés of Serj Tankian (and the best Tool-aping act since Chevelle), have yet to make an epic game-changer of an album, but Arrows & Anchors, their fourth, comes close.