Converge — Hum Of Hurt
"No leftovers here; 2 for 2": Converge's second 2026 album equals the first by digging elsewhere.
"No leftovers here; 2 for 2": Converge's second 2026 album equals the first by digging elsewhere.
The Finnish masters of sorrow find an unexpected glimmer: 81/100 for a record brighter than usual.
The German thrash veterans have lost none of their bite: 78/100 for a record cut for the stage.
The Swedish Vikings go to war again with the same axe: 78/100 for a record faithful to its legend.
The founding fathers of Gothenburg hold their rank despite the departures: 78/100 for a controlled renewal.
80.2/100 and four reviews in unison: Manchester delivers Europe's pit record of the year.
Josh Homme reopens the wound and delivers a sharp record: 80/100 for the sneering return of the Californians.
The Swedish cult fully embraces the stadium and pop: 78/100 for an ambitious, divisive record.
The Britons trade rage for love and gain in depth: 83/100 for a daring turn.
Swedish social satire hits a new peak of causticity: 82/100 for a record as funny as it is disquieting.
The Australians broaden their horizon without losing any of their rage: 84/100 for their most accomplished record.
The grand return of the Swedish garage-rock dandies: 80/100 for a record of pure adrenaline.
Eleven albums, zero fatigue: 84/100 for technical metalcore's safest bet.
A noisy, devastating portrait of the deep American South: 86/100 for one of the records of the year.
The Canadian noise merchants embrace a new atmospheric breadth: 81/100 for a record of maturity.
The English band flee the post-punk cliché and embrace excess: 82/100 for an audacious second album.
81/100 and a first Billboard Hard Rock No. 1: the press crowns Amy Lee's return, the public debates.
80/100, a Distorted Sound 10/10 and no dissenting voice: Toulouse rules the cosmos.
The Norwegians confirm their supercharged hardcore pop punk: 80/100 for an explosive, melodic record.
The calculated chaos of mathcore reaches peaks of aggression: 82/100 for a suffocating record.
Norwegian black metal pared back to its icy open sea: 80/100 for a convincing first record after Abbath.
Chaos and grace in a single breath: 86/100 for the culmination of a twenty-year mutation.
Violence in the service of a message: 83/100 for a British death metal as ferocious as it is lucid.
Hardcore meets the gothic: 84/100 for a collaboration as improbable as it is spellbinding.
The Dutch band's diaphanous melancholy reaches its purest form: 82/100 for a blackgaze of mist.
The Britons widen their brutality without betraying it: 80/100 for a finely crafted deathcore.
The architects of technical death metal hold their course: 80/100 for a controlled return.
British rage turns more hymnal without losing its bite: 82/100 for an ambitious metalcore.
The insatiable Japanese replay their riff library with glee: 80/100 for a third "Heavy Rocks".
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.