Iron Maiden: The Book of Souls – raw and punchy

Confounding some fans, Iron Maiden refuse to coast on their old hits, and have made another knotty, impressive album

Motörhead: Bad Magic review – indecently thrilling and vital

The band’s 22nd studio album is delivered with the kind of venomous abandon and danger that most bands can only dream of. Long may they rage on

Sweden’s occult rockers balance theatricality and thudding malevolence on their third release. It could be a breakthrough

They may have the purists harrumphing into their goblets of mead, but Deafheaven’s brand of shoegaze black metal has this crowd in raptures

With a schlocky Hammer Horror aesthetic, Sunn O))) worship decibels and endurance – the musical equivalent of slow death from aggressive disease

It’s a slight improvement on the hopeless Temper Temper, but BFMV are still pretty unconvincing

Fear Factory’s latest is an exhilarating musical collision of man and machine, and their best album for 20 years

One of metal’s biggest bands earn their status with an album full of fresh axes to grind

Cradle of Filth may have lost their power to shock, but their latest album is full of filthy, vicious fun

These punky Swedes throw a thousand ideas into their comeback album, but very few of them are any good

Prog-metal heroes Between the Buried and Me reach new heights on their jaw-dropping new album

Lemmy is 69 now, but Motörhead’s brand of full-throttle rock shows little sign of slowing down

The US post-punk band are touring their first new album for 18 years, but the gap has not diminished their thrilling swagger

Slipknot strengthened their bond with the festival crowd, Muse won over the metal fans and Marilyn Manson was almost back to his malevolent best

Faith No More return with an album that proves Mike Patton still hasn’t given up experimenting, but it’s not up there with their best material