Lord Spikeheart: The Adept review – Duma star’s relentless metal isn’t for the fainthearted

With doom-laden growls and falsetto screams, the Kenyan metaller’s indefatigable vocals cut through a thunderous onslaught of headbanging sound

While She Sleeps: Self Hell review – exploding out of metalcore with a scream

On their sixth album, the hardcore Sheffield quintet bring furious riffs, howling, swearing and … acoustic guitars?

Ben Frost: Scope Neglect review – grim grandeur with gnarly tongue-out riffs

The avant garde musician’s first album in seven years features cinematic ambience, pummelling sound design and whinnying metal guitar

The Body and Dis Fig: Orchards of a Futile Heaven review – awe-inspiring music for heavy times

A collaboration between the alt-metal duo and Berlin-based shapeshifter Felicia Chen creates a dark but nourishing LP of hellish depth

Enter Shikari review – sensory overload by a British band hitting the big leagues

Twenty years into their career and on their first arena tour, Enter Shikari push the massive sound system to the limit with gleeful and vibrant cross-genre rock

Sleep Token review – masked metallers don’t need faces – or even a voice – to enthral

After vocalist Vessel loses his voice mid-set, the UK band call upon the vast audience they’ve built to carry them through

Ragana: Desolation’s Flower review – amazing guitar tone lights up doomy incantations

The US rock duo address life’s horrors with honesty, fury and gorgeous noise – though some of their riffs can be pedestrian

Supersonic festival – doom, earsplitting ecstasy and thousands of samosas

The Midlands experimental music institution celebrates 20 years of triumphant noise, from alt-rock stalwarts Deerfhoof to feminist punks Taqbir and folk stars Lankum

Limp Bizkit review – nu-metal elders can still rock the party like it’s 1999

Fred Durst and co – whose notoriety was recently restoked by a Netflix series about Woodstock ’99 – pound out their irresistibly aggro rebel anthems with cheerful abandon

Skindred: Smile review – Welsh ragga-metallers mix a joyous sonic cocktail

One minute it’s riffs and political rage, the next it’s summery reggae. Thanks to their craft – and frontman Benji Webbe’s joie de vivre – the band’s barrier-breaking album is a treat

Iron Maiden review – showstopping rock theatre and tantalising live rarities

Deep cuts and under-sung treasures are given their moment in the dry ice from the reliably extravagant and big-hearted band

Download festival review – 20th birthday brings double Metallica, occult glam and a new breed

After travel chaos this proves to be an epic four-dayer, with an eclectic mix from Bring Me the Horizon to AA Williams plus Metallica spanning their career

Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe review – from the pathetic to the sublime

On this co-headline tour, Mötley Crüe are crass and limp, and then shown up all the more by the triumphant power of Def Leppard’s homecoming

Metallica: 72 Seasons review – a poignant if protracted nostalgia kick

With weighty lyrics referencing James Hetfield’s ongoing recovery and harking back to the band’s formative British influences, 72 Seasons has the edge of Metallica’s 80s heyday – albeit one blunted by overlong songs

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs: Land of Sleeper review – doom rockers refine mind-bending sound

With repeated rhythmic blows and pulsing bass licks, the Newcastle band amplify the volume on their fourth album and keep listeners entrenched in their heady cosmos