Architects: Holy Hell review – addressing tragedy with gravity and defiance

The metal band’s moving first album since the death of founder Tom Searle has a heartfelt and anthemic feel

Slayer review – thrash legends unleash a barrage of malevolence

The LA four-piece’s final world tour delivers a furious rush of excitement in a celebratory sweep through 37 years of mayhem

Behemoth: I Loved You at Your Darkest review – Wagnerian satanic metal

Polish band’s 11th album is a romp that could appeal to more than hardcore metalheads

Deafheaven review – mixed-up metalheads gallop to the end of the world

The San Francisco band pull in dream-pop, post-rock and more for this fearsome, beautiful show

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs: King of Cowards review – pulverising but accessible metal

The Newcastle quintet find no riff too monolithic on this excellent second album

Halestorm review – middle ground between rock fire and pop sugar

The Pennsylvanian rockers veer from sweet melody to industrial pummelling – all topped with Lzzy Hale’s lung-collapsing vocals

Iron Maiden review – Spitfires, hell and a rallying cry for freedom

The heavy metal heroes stage their most extravagant show to date, an anti-war opera full of pyrotechnics, swordfights and monastic chanting

Deafheaven: Ordinary Corrupt Human Love review – black metal with grey areas

By turning their outsider status – not quite metal, not quite indie, beholden to shoegaze and dreampop – into a virtue, Deafheaven have made a unique album

Deftones review – bat screeches, unfettered aggro and posh moshing

The US alt-metallers turn up the experimental static, shoegaze sludge and nu-metal roars to max for a showpiece gig that shows why they deserve reverence

Download festival review – Guns N’ Roses dominate metal’s biggest party

Marilyn Manson is a chilled-out entertainer, Avenged Sevenfold comfortably top the bill and Ozzy Osbourne feels the love during the metal marathon

Machine Head review – thrillingly brutal metal marathon

The pioneering rockers deliver a thunderous show that passes in a blur of flailing limbs, airborne beer – and furious politics

Five Finger Death Punch: And Justice for None review – single-minded angst rock

The Las Vegas band’s seventh album is carved from the same slabs of rock as their previous ones, and it sticks right to the point

Trivium review – heavy metal headbangers just wanna have fun

The veteran Florida foursome make faintly ridiculous music that incites a fevered response – even the stage banter prompts crowdsurfing

Andrew WK review – 12-step party programme from rock’s self-help guru

Adrenaline-fuelled anthems meet pop philosophy as the rocker mixes giddy hedonism with vulnerability

Judas Priest: Firepower review – toned-down riffs never lower the tone

What do you do when you made your name hitting notes high enough to summon all dogs within a 40-mile radius, but age takes your pitch down and puts the screech out of reach? It’s an issue particular to metal, … Continue reading →