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

Elder: Innate Passage review – ground-shaking heaviness meets lofty ambition

The Berlin-based band’s new album delivers pulverising heft and proggy nirvana at its most polished

Incubus review – noughties California band throw themselves behind the hits

Bringing back their much-loved early albums, the crossover band’s big-choruses and expansive rock anthems still get the fans singing

Ozzy Osbourne: Patient Number 9 review – immortal king of heavy metal cheats death again

The irrepressible rocker offsets his usual forays into the occult with moving contemplations of illness on a star-studded return

Static Dress review – more moshpit, less theatricality please

The promising post-hardcore band put on an overly conceptualised show that could easily afford to rely on their fervent rapport with fans

ArcTanGent festival – metal at its spine-tingling best

The likes of Cult of Luna, Amenra and Tesseract grace the return of a prized weekend of heavy and progressive talent

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