Aborted : Vault of Horrors
The Belgian steamroller invites its peers to a gore feast: 79/100 for a death metal as swift as it is well-signposted.
The Belgian steamroller invites its peers to a gore feast: 79/100 for a death metal as swift as it is well-signposted.
Ohio's sludgy death metal wallows gleefully in the muck: 79/100 for a record as filthy as it is fun.
Press applauds (74), public sulks (58): Shinedown's most ambitious record is also its most divisive.
Eight years away, back at 81/100: the symphonic black throne reclaimed, the scissors forgotten.
The press hails the comeback (4/5 at Kerrang!), AMG fires a 2/5: round ten for the metalcore veterans.
Tompa Lindberg's posthumous farewell: 85/100, Kerrang! and AMG at full marks. Exit through the front door.
Zero surprises, ferocious execution: 75/100 for veterans proving hardcore is in rude health.
First UK number one of their career and 76/100: the Welsh "punky reggae party" gets almost everyone dancing.
"Heavy as fuck": 78/100 for the Floridian demolition machine, tried-and-true formula included.
Thirty-five years, zero drop-off: 85/100 for a direct and devastating death metal statement.
Seventeen years away, 80/100 on arrival: the year's best-received metalcore comeback.
Resurrection with Aaron Turner, 89/100: 2026's best-rated metal record is a Neurosis album.
Cathartic black metal goes luminous metalcore: press won over (74), faithful betrayed (60). Debate open.
Eleven reviews, 81/100: the best Lamb Of God since Wrath, and almost nobody argues otherwise.
Winning comeback at 74/100: Zombie's industrial B-movie "rocks like an absolute motherfucker". Only Pitchfork pouts.
Four 9/10s and a trip into "the obsidian kaleidoscope": 87/100, the winter's extreme-metal peak.
Three perfect scores and 87/100 across 13 reviews: hardcore's elder statesmen still have no rival.
Three 9/10s and a « modern classic » tag: symphonic black metal gets its delusions of grandeur back. 84/100.
Thirteen years of waiting, 78/100, press and public aligned: "the bar for progressive metal in 2026" per Metal Hammer.
Mustaine's goodbye: 62/100 from critics, 48 from the public. Stumbling off the stage.
Symphonic deathcore with hooks: 9/10 on one side, 2.5/5 on the other. The genre glares at itself.
More metal, less prog: the press wavers (8/10 vs 5/10), the fanbase checks out. See you at Le Rex in December.
Killer hooks for the press (8.5/10 at Blabbermouth), 53/100 from the public. The great symphonic split.
Press anoints it (85/100), public checks out (65): the year's widest critics-fans gap.
Grave Noise at 7.5, Kerrang! at 3/5: unique in the world, yet familiar. The Paris blade cuts a 7.