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 →

Turnstile: Time & Space review – teeth-rattling hardcore … with a dash of Status Quo

Eight years after singer Brendan Yates and guitarist Brady Ebert started rehearsing in a neighbour’s garage, the Baltimore quintet’s riotous live shows have made them one of the most discussed bands in hardcore. Their second album follows a major label … Continue reading →

Architects review – raging crusaders raise the roof with a tearful tribute

Eighteen months after their guitarist’s death, the Brighton metal band turn a ferocious evening into a poignant homage

Marmozets: Knowing What You Know Now review – Brit rockers make their great leap forward

Any hurtling momentum built up by the West Yorkshire band’s 2014 debut, The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets, was rather crudely derailed when singer Becca Macintyre’s knee operation left her housebound and horizontal. You wouldn’t wish such an experience on someone … Continue reading →

Asking Alexandria/Black Veil Brides review – pop-metal pomp as silly as Spinal Tap

It’s hysterical pleasure all round as York’s Asking Alexandria flounce like a metal Ballet Rambert and Ohio’s Black Veil Brides add violins and top hats to their anthems