In this Review Round-Up, Rise Of The Northstar should be better; Archetypes Collide are better than they should be; and The Bar Stool Preachers are just solid all around.
Extreme metal ferocity and progressive grandeur are brought together once again by Ne Obliviscaris, for their best fusion of the two to date.
Continuing to soar among British alt-rock, Deaf Havana arrived in Liverpool last week with Sick Joy and The LaFontaines, and we’ve got a full review and photo galleries here.
After a few years away, The Ongoing Concept return with a refined, tighter-than-ever concoction of post-hardcore, prog and pop-rock.
It’s not just nostalgia driving Samiam’s latest; there’s still the sharp skate-punk melody and know-how that finds them striking as hard as you like.
Lordi tap into classic horror for conceptually their easiest win yet, even if they’re still unable to make a wholly compelling or effective metal album from it.
An era of divisive pop pivots is now seemingly behind them, as Fall Out Boy channel the grand, bombastic pop-rock of old while still moving healthily forward, and produce their best work in a decade.
Bury Tomorrow show off both their consistency in metalcore and some fresher flourishes, for a new album that finally feels blessed with long-term strength.
In this Review Round-Up, there’s a bumper selection of releases, spanning symphonic pop from Floor Jansen, genre-melding rap-rock from Codefendants, piano-driven prog-pop from Exploring Birdsong, and ragged Gen Z pop-rock from Lille Venn.
Armed with folk’s texture, punk’s ethics and black-metal’s intensity, Dawn Ray’d find ground to establish themselves among the most exciting names in metal.