Chelsea Wolfe: The Dark review – existential reflection goes from whisper to gothic scream

The genre-blending Californian artist casts off past toxic influences with a powerful set of tender, brooding and emotionally charged songs that wouldn’t feel out of place as festival anthems

Loathe: A Stranger to You review – metalcore masters offer stylistic swerves and surprising beauty

Granite-hard riffola collides with balm-like electronics and tinkling jazz piano in a thrilling fourth album of musical metamorphosis

System of a Down review – perverted pop and anti-war anger mixed into a metal melee

The veteran band may not have much new material to show for the past decade or so but this brutal, melodious mayhem still inspires catharsis

Metallica review – metal legends break out the pyrotechnics … and a Proclaimers cover

Armed with four drum kits, an arsenal of hits and a 50,000-strong snake pit, Lars Ulrich and co deliver a masterclasss on their marathon world tour

Download festival review – Guns N’ Roses flop and Letlive thrive as metal’s biggest fest enters the future

Often criticised for booking the same old legends, the festival hosts a broad span of music’s heaviest genre, plus hip-hop, Indian folk – and, finally, its first female headliner

Sunn O))): Sunn O))) review – a seismic return to drone metal’s elemental core

The doomy duo strip back their sound to tectonic guitars and feedback, conjuring an immersive, strangely euphoric listening experience recorded in the wilds of Washington

Deftones review – alt-metal veterans sound exceptionally fresh 38 years on

The US band’s brawny, pit-inciting riffs come laced with blurry waves of distortion, making for music that is oddly reflective and melancholy

Converge: Love Is Not Enough review – metalcore veterans’ rage remains fresh and furious

Even after 35 years, the intricacies and emotional pangs of these masters of technicality remain undimmed, drawing from a seemingly bottomless well of inspiration

Megadeth: Megadeth review – conspiracy theories and combustible fingers on thrash metallers’ curtain call

Tuneful yet overlong, Dave Mustaine and co’s final album is a recap of Megadeth’s strengths, flaws and familiar grudges

Bad Omens review – anthemic songs and pillars of fire dampened by arena nerves

Noah Sebastian’s vocals switch deftly from croon to scream to whisper, but the genre-hopping US metalcore band lack chemistry on the big stage

Agriculture: The Spiritual Sound review – unabashedly gorgeous noise from ‘ecstatic black metal’ band

The LA group deliver all the power and euphoria of heavy music with imaginative detailing on their second album, which will have you levitating with joy

Nova Twins: Parasites & Butterflies review – fearless rock duo balance anthems and introspection

Trailblazers Amy Love and Georgia South push the boundaries of their trademark hybrid rock sound while confronting mental health and naysayers

Bloodstock review – this is the UK’s best fest for true heavy metal madness

Trivium bring the bells and whistles, Gojira are supercharged and Machine Head get 1,011 crowdsurfers as they etch themselves on extreme metal’s Mount Rushmore

Judas Priest review – thrash, hellfire, dazzling guitar … Ozzy would have loved it

Still making stellar new music in their sixth decade, the Brummie band pay tribute to the late Black Sabbath frontman as they cement their place among the heavy metal gods

Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne: Back to the Beginning review – all-star farewell to the gods of metal is epic and emotional

The biggest names in rock, from Metallica to Slayer, came to pay tribute to the men who created their entire genre – and even in old age, Sabbath’s sound has bludgeoning force