Mark Lore

The Book of Souls is the best Maiden record from Dickinson’s second act, and an impressive achievement from one of metal’s greatest bands.

Island Intervals marks a giant leap for Thibodeau, while not veering too far from his own trodden trail. Call it future folk, but in 10 years we’ll be calling it timeless.

43 years after the release of that monumental first record, I believe Black Sabbath is very much alive.

It’s the one of the best QOTSA records to date. It also might be the first rock release of the dystopian blog-eat-blog era capable of recapturing the idea of music as a shared experience—that is, there are a lot of people waiting to get their ears in it.

Miracle Mile is the most varied Starfucker joint to date. It’s also one of the prettiest party records you’ll hear this year. 

This collection is the band’s tightest and most cohesive, and they do so without losing any of the grit. 

Two years later and one member down, Menomena still sounds like Menomena, and the band’s new long-player Moms shovels up another heaping earful of glorious noise.

Sees the Light manages to squeeze a boatload of emotions out of simple verse-chorus-verse pop.