Coheed and Cambria: Year of the Black Rainbow
A prog-metal concept album about a fictional galaxy? Count Jamie Thomson out
Cathedral: The Guessing Game
The doom metal pioneers have made a journey into jazz-inflected joy, says Jamie Thomson
Sunn O))): Monoliths & Dimensions, Necks: Silverwater, Jack Rose: Jack Rose and the Black Twig Pickers
Kitty Empire picks out three of the best overlooked albums of the year
Sunn O))): Monoliths & Dimensions
The most compelling – and important – avant garde record since Love's Secret Domain, writes Jamie Thomson
When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin by Mick Wall
Louis Pattinson blanches at this account of 60s rock excess by Led Zep confidant Mick Wall
Music: This week’s releases
Cold Cave | Slayer | Darkstar | Miike Snow | Cheryl Cole
Reading festival round-up: Kings of Leon, Faith No More and Florence and the Machine
Day one: How will the aging metal contingent get along with young indie fans fresh from taking their GCSES? Booze, it seems, is the answer
Jan Zehrfeld’s Panzerballett: Hart Genossen von Abba bis Zappa
Some say the jazz police will despair over Panzerballet, the German jazz-metal band - but not John Fordham
Alice in Chains
Scala, London The metal faithful gave a jubilant welcome to the returning grungers – even without late singer Layne Staley, says Alexis Petridis
Spinal Tap
Pop review<par break>Wembley Arena, London The spoof metal band's air of out-of-their-time befuddlement is still marvellously, preposterously intact, says Ian Gittins
Black Sabbath: Master of Reality
It's a surprisingly limber album, given momentum by the imaginative, almost jazzy drumming of Bill Ward, says Michael Hann
Rock review: Black Sabbath, Paranoid
This pre-metal 1970 classic captures Ozzy and co as rock pioneers, says Peter Kimpton
Rock review: Mastodon, Crack the Skye
Emma Johnston is fascinated by a crazed prog metal album about Russia and Rasputin
Metallica
O2 Arena, LondonMetallica still inspire devotion, even though it wasn't so long ago that their stock was at its lowest, writes Jamie Thomson
New music on Wednesday
Henry Barnes: Guardian.co.uk/music's resident expert combs this week's new releases field with his musicological metal detector and separates the gold coins from the rusty nails