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
While She Sleeps: Sleeps Society review – magnificent metalcore for a fractious world
The noisy Sheffield band fully realise their pop potential on their fifth album, as they vent thrillingly about society’s manifold ills
Venom Prison: Primeval review – potent disgust from Welsh death metallers
Continuing to subvert the politics of a lot of hardcore metal, the band look back to early material, energising it with melodic invention and anger