Download festival review – Aerosmith’s ageless anthems electrify crowd
Steven Tyler brings characteristic unhinged abandon, while metal quintet Avenged Sevenfold prove ready for festival headliner glory, writes Dom Lawson
Linkin Park: The Hunting Party review – former nu-metallers rock out again
Linkin Park (and famous friends) go back to the guitars and shouting, while bringing in some new ideas, too, writes Dave Simpson
Anathema: Distant Satellites review – soaring, supercharged prog masterpiece
Anathema have been making extraordinarily bold, powerful rock music for years, and their tenth album is as good as anything they've done, writes Dom Lawson
Down: Down IV – Part II review – upholding the downbeat Sabbath ethos
Recent lineup changes seem to have produced the Louisiana quintet's strongest material since their revered 1995 debut, writes Dom Lawson
Within Temptation review – ‘Corny potboiler of a band, oddly enjoyable’
The Dutch gothic metal band are complete hokum – and make splendidly overwrought music with razor-sharp, infectious melodies, writes Ian Gittins
Steel Panther review – ‘Explicit come-ons and ill-judged jokes’
Beneath the hair-metal parodists' crass jokes and meathead riffs lies real craftsmanship, writes Graeme Virtue
Architects: Lost Forever//Lost Together review – ‘Complex and brutal album that belies metalcore’s stagnation’
Toughened up in every department, with no sign of compromise in the thudding grooves and polyrhythmic punch
Conan: Blood Eagle review – macabre, Lovecraftian metal from Liverpool
This Liverpool doom trio's new album is an uncompromising onslaught of slow-motion riffs and hellish bellowing, writes Dom Lawson
Dream Theater – review
The band seem to be on a mission to pack in even more twiddly-twiddly bits than their 1970s prog-rock forebears, writes Dave Simpson
Kerrang! tour, featuring Limp Bizkit – review
Nothing, sadly, in Kerrang! magazine's tour leaves you feeling puzzled that metal doesn't have more chart success
Sunn O))) & Ulver: Terrestrials – review
Avant garde US metal heroes Sunn 0))) team up with Norwegian prog outfit Ulver for a wondrously inventive collaboration, writes Jamie Thomson
Behemoth: The Satanist – review
Poland's extreme metal heroes return with an album that cements their reputation as one of the genre's strongest forces, writes Dom Lawson
Skindred: Kill the Power – review
Dave Simpson: Newport's Skindred have seen improbably success on the back of 'ragga metal', an odd hybrid that is full of cliches but is certainly varied
You Me at Six: Cavalier Youth – review
If any current Brit-rock band is likely to achieve greater visibility, it's this tuneful and pile-driving fivesome from Surrey, writes Caroline Sullivan
Lamb of God – review
The Virginia heavy-metal band deliver gentle moments amid furious, technically astute thrashing, writes Dave Simpson