Knocked Loose: You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To review – hardcore punk’s dark stars go supermassive
The Kentucky metalcore quintet cleverly channel pop – and even reggaeton grooves – to create an album of crushing intensity and vast scope
Tenacious D review – Jack Black’s daft duo are deeply schooled in rock
The actor’s prog-metal spoof band with Kyle Gass hilariously skewer rock cliche – but come from a place of deep love for the genre
Lord Spikeheart: The Adept review – Duma star’s relentless metal isn’t for the fainthearted
With doom-laden growls and falsetto screams, the Kenyan metaller’s indefatigable vocals cut through a thunderous onslaught of headbanging sound
While She Sleeps: Self Hell review – exploding out of metalcore with a scream
On their sixth album, the hardcore Sheffield quintet bring furious riffs, howling, swearing and … acoustic guitars?
Ben Frost: Scope Neglect review – grim grandeur with gnarly tongue-out riffs
The avant garde musician’s first album in seven years features cinematic ambience, pummelling sound design and whinnying metal guitar
The Body and Dis Fig: Orchards of a Futile Heaven review – awe-inspiring music for heavy times
A collaboration between the alt-metal duo and Berlin-based shapeshifter Felicia Chen creates a dark but nourishing LP of hellish depth
Enter Shikari review – sensory overload by a British band hitting the big leagues
Twenty years into their career and on their first arena tour, Enter Shikari push the massive sound system to the limit with gleeful and vibrant cross-genre rock
Sleep Token review – masked metallers don’t need faces – or even a voice – to enthral
After vocalist Vessel loses his voice mid-set, the UK band call upon the vast audience they’ve built to carry them through
Ragana: Desolation’s Flower review – amazing guitar tone lights up doomy incantations
The US rock duo address life’s horrors with honesty, fury and gorgeous noise – though some of their riffs can be pedestrian
Supersonic festival – doom, earsplitting ecstasy and thousands of samosas
The Midlands experimental music institution celebrates 20 years of triumphant noise, from alt-rock stalwarts Deerfhoof to feminist punks Taqbir and folk stars Lankum
Limp Bizkit review – nu-metal elders can still rock the party like it’s 1999
Fred Durst and co – whose notoriety was recently restoked by a Netflix series about Woodstock ’99 – pound out their irresistibly aggro rebel anthems with cheerful abandon
Skindred: Smile review – Welsh ragga-metallers mix a joyous sonic cocktail
One minute it’s riffs and political rage, the next it’s summery reggae. Thanks to their craft – and frontman Benji Webbe’s joie de vivre – the band’s barrier-breaking album is a treat
Iron Maiden review – showstopping rock theatre and tantalising live rarities
Deep cuts and under-sung treasures are given their moment in the dry ice from the reliably extravagant and big-hearted band
Download festival review – 20th birthday brings double Metallica, occult glam and a new breed
After travel chaos this proves to be an epic four-dayer, with an eclectic mix from Bring Me the Horizon to AA Williams plus Metallica spanning their career
Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe review – from the pathetic to the sublime
On this co-headline tour, Mötley Crüe are crass and limp, and then shown up all the more by the triumphant power of Def Leppard’s homecoming