Supersonic festival 2022 review – joy and fury from an inspiring music community

From Grove’s queer swagger to Circle’s ecological visions and Divide and Dissolve’s call for decolonisation, this thrilling underground fest has radical utopianism at its heart

Nova Twins: Supernova review – explosive wit and anger from UK’s finest rock duo

The genre-splicing pair’s sharp, concise songwriting makes for a mindblowing blast of distorted noise-pop – and destroys the narrative about who gets to make rock music

Download festival review – monster metal weekend roars back to full volume

At capacity again after two years of Covid, jubilant crowds greet showstopping turns from full-glam Kiss to musically flashy Iron Maiden and the fury of Bleed from Within

Meshuggah review – mechanical Swedish metallers in need of human frailty

Effectively summoning moods of burning heat and freezing cold, the djent pioneers’ machine-like precision can be tiring

Alice Cooper review – guillotine-wielding rocker is no longer a cut above

The shock-rock superstar delivers a fine spectacle, but his varied back catalogue gets homogenised on this arena tour

Cave In: Heavy Pendulum review – an unapologetically fierce beast

With gargantuan riffs and amps turned up to 11, pure metal is tempered with the grace and complexity that have become the band’s trademark

Tool review – master musicianship and mesmerising prog-metal

For their first non-festival gig in the UK in nearly 15 years, the LA quartet’s opuses generate a frenzy – and drummer Danny Carey shows he is one of the greats

Rammstein: Zeit review – ridiculous, but no risk of boredom

The Gothic, operatic metallers deliver hook after hook on an album so streamlined and efficient you can almost hear the pyro cues

Ghost review – rock’n’roll pyro pantomime is hellishly good fun

Tobias Forge’s band of ghouls just reached No 2 in the UK charts, and their symphonic metal – complete with bat wings, confetti and flamethrowers – has universal appeal

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe: Bloodmoon: I review – an explosive combination

The band’s long-awaited collaboration with dark rocker Wolfe is slower and more melodic than their usual albums, yet even heavier

Bring Me the Horizon review – clearly the UK’s greatest rock band right now

With Cybermen cheerleaders, hazmat suits and gigantic mosh pits, there’s a gloriously daft energy to the pop-metallers’ emotional, earth-shaking return

Employed to Serve: Conquering review – thrilling, gut-churning metal

The brilliant Woking band get heavier than ever, causing motion sickness with their animalistic, groove-laden songs

Iron Maiden: Senjutsu review – an ambitious, eccentric masterpiece

Maiden’s creative renaissance continues in style with this playfully bombastic metal epic

Deafheaven: Infinite Granite review – rock at its most majestically beautiful

Fifth album by San Francisco band finds intense and yes, ethereal, shoegaze taking over from black metal

Download Pilot review – a joyful noise for fans and bands

Exuberant scenes at the rock and metal festival test event find its 10,000 guinea pigs leaving Covid blues far behind