Nick Ruskell
Even a near quarter-century on from Hybrid Theory, the size and swiftness of Linkin Park’s impact and dominance remains a genuinely staggering thing.
2y
The Mandrake Project is a colossal idea carried out by an artist who revels in snowballing ideas and having to work hard to cram it all in. It’s the most Bruce Dickinson of all Bruce Dickinson’s solo works. It's also the best.
2y
Norwegian black metal legend Ihsahn continues to boldly go where others wouldn’t think to on eighth solo offering.
2y
This is ... Lucifer’s best work to date. Having blossomed into a very good band on their last couple of albums, here everything shines brilliantly with their very own, expertly applied sheen.
2y
As they get older and wiser, when they focus their songwriting skills like they do on Saviors, they are as sharp, bright and essential as they’ve ever been. And they still know who they, and you, are.
2y
Even if the songs sometimes lack quite enough bite, being too good at raising hell hasn’t stopped The Struts continuing to make music to do it to. Good.
2y
Dutch metal troupe Within Temptation take a turn for the heavy (in every sense) and make their best album in over a decade.
2y
Creatively, it is an inspired idea, carried off by a unique talent. Artistically – that is, as a means of expressing something from within – it brings both a feeling of overbearing dread, and an honest sense of empowerment and reaching up for something, of shedding skin in order to find comfort.
2y
Nostalgia, bittersweet angst and mid-30s growing pains: The Menzingers once again serve it deliciously on seventh album.
2y
Live, these songs will probably find the required juice to make them stand as tall as they might. As it is, Tether all too often comes across as vague, distant, and in need of a spark to set the whole thing off.
2y
That Code Orange have gone so bold is to be credited. That they’ve made such a huge range of stuff work together so well even more so. That none of this feels like a loss to what Code Orange once were once you take it in and digest it is to be given standing ovation.
2y
The main business is killing, of course, and business is very good. It’s one of the reasons why Tomb Mold are among the most respected names in the new school of old school. But by allowing their own ideas to run wild atop it all, they’re also comfortably one of its most creative.
2y
You don’t need telling to get on Stone – a Baroness record is recommendation enough. But in the context here, with the stones and everything, it’s an entirely pleasing reminder that when they create something, it will stand for the ages.
2y
It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day succeeds in part because, once again, Thirty Seconds To Mars haven’t sounded like this before. More power to them for that.
2y
Kate described what they’d done as “more confident” than what had gone before. That is, knowing themselves, knowing what Pupil Slicer actually is, and knowing how to turn whatever they grasp into something uniquely theirs. Indeed, they have truly blossomed into something very special indeed.
3y
Though 72 Seasons isn’t a game-changer, it’s this that says the most important thing here: Metallica being Metallica and letting fly with all they’ve got is still a mighty, charged-up, exciting, cathartic, deadly thing.
3y
At their strongest ... as on punky standout Doritos And Fritos – 10,000 gecs is a wonderful exercise in letting creativity run amok with no rules at all and carefully catching the resultant gold. God alone knows what the inevitable 100,000 gecs is going to sound like.
3y
Måneskin won their title largely through sheer excitement – big, loud rock ‘n’ roll thrills bursting with panache and style and charisma and sex. On third album RUSH! this modus operandi remains so: every OTT moment here is designed to dazzle.
3y
It’s a sound built on atmosphere and vastness, to the point where the actual songwriting itself (and very good it obviously is) is a secondary feature to the depth of sound in which the pair urge you to take a bath.
3y
Tuk Smith ... shows himself to be a fine songwriter here, invoking classic rock’s heyday without slipping into parody or cheese.
3y
Backxwash aren't the easiest proposition. This is extreme music heavy in both sound and content. But this is also part of the strength of the album. It is unflinching in its subject matter and depth of its darkness, just as it is unafraid to be exactly what it is. And that's something quite unlike anything else you'll hear in 2022.
3y