Reviews archive

August 2025

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56 articles

August 31
- "Vibrant, loud and sure to destroy dance floors worldwide": The Hives celebrate sweat and rock'n'roll glory on The Hives Forever Forever The Hives
August 29
- "Amid the chaos and violence, Beth strains with every fibre of her being to resist, and to refuse, and to fight for what she holds dear and true." A defiant Jehnny Beth confronts an ever-darkening world with the fierce, furious You Heartbreaker, You
- I just watched Metallica play in front of a few hundred people including Paul McCartney, Michael J. Fox and Sylvester Stallone - here's what it was like
- “An old-fashioned, listen-in-one-sitting record – they’ve pair have done more than talk a good game”: Chimpan A battle the TikTokification of music on M.I.A. Vol 1
- “They reveal clever nuances over repeat listens – but it’s enigmatic and unskippable from the offset”: Ihlo finally return with Legacy
- "Now in his mid-60s, there's still something oddly teenage about Bryan Adams": Soft rock's Mr Nice Guy returns to familiar ground
August 28
- Nova Twins Parasites & Butterflies review: one of the UK's most exciting alternative bands have made something beautiful out of chaos
August 27
- Lighting up a dank east London basement, Ecca Vandal proves that she's got the songs, the skills, the attitude and the aura to become alt.rock's next 'new' star
- CMAT has stolen the show at every festival she's played this summer, and Euro-Country will make Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson a genuine star
August 26
- Barry Can't Swim, Confidence Man, Orbital and more make for a truly generational day of edm at All Points East
August 25
- "The band have enough experience and style of their own for it never to sound like a pastiche": Black Country Communion's debut album is a heartfelt homage to 1973
August 24
- Limp Bizkit pull the biggest crowd of the day at Reading Festival and, to the surprise of no one, absolutely smash it
- Bring Me The Horizon's Reading headline set is a mixed bag, but when they're good, they're incredible
August 22
- “They take the scenic route, never rushing to the destination. Keep an open mind”: Steve Rothery and Thorsten Quaeschning, as Bioscope, go on a journey with Gentō
August 21
- "They've earned the right to keep channelling the spirit of the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd": Robert Jon & The Wreck keep the southern vibes alive on Heartbreaks & Last Goodbyes
August 20
- "A timeless record oozing with confidence." Wolf Alice serve up one of the essential albums of 2025 with brilliant, bold fourth album The Clearing
August 19
- More than 30 years into their career, one of the nastiest cult thrash metal bands you probably haven't heard of just made one of their best albums
- Deftones - Private Music review: the most complete and essential album Deftones have made in a very long time and the perfect record for their late-period career renaissance
- "The tempos might have slowed, but they make up for it in sheer bloody-minded forcefulness": Exodus break the habit of a lifetime on Force Of Habit
August 16
- “Brought back to life with tremendous care… instruments pop out that even diehard devotees may have previously missed”: Cardiacs’ On Land And In The Sea
August 15
- “The singer is in tears as the final chords ring, and who can blame her?”: The most outspoken British metalcore band of the decade just played their last show
- "More clarity to Phil Mogg's passionate vocals and Paul Chapman's white-hot solos": The deluxe edition of UFO's No Place To Run successfully upgrades the original
- “There’s a magical feel… if the bleakness of the world outside is too much, hole up here and shut it all out”: Nightwish offshoot Auri return with III – Candles & Beginnings
August 14
- You’ve never heard of this space rock band, but they just put on one of the loudest, craziest and most incredible festival sets I’ve seen in my life
- Three young girls with an average age of 14 have just showed me that the future of heavy metal is in safe hands
- "Steven Wilson has revealed subtleties hidden for more than 50 years": Deep Purple's Made In Japan - now bigger and better than ever
August 13
- "One of the best metal albums of 2025 so far - extreme or otherwise." Blackbraid's mash-up of black metal brilliance and Native American spirit gets even better on album three
- "They're larger-than-life action heroes extolling the virtues of guilt-free sex in the most OTT way." Heavy metal nuns Dogma just took over London's Black Heart - are they the scene's next breakout band?
- “Holds its own against its more famous predecessor – a worthy reminder of Jon Hiseman’s considerable talents”: Colosseum’s Live 05
August 12
- Rocket's brilliant debut at the UK's most vibrant breeding ground for new bands is proof that the young Los Angeles quartet are set to go supersonic
- Did we just see Mastodon play their best ever festival show? Yes, yes we did
August 11
- "It’s a good omen that, prior to the band coming on, the entire field joins in unison to sing Ozzy Osbourne." Gojira's majestic set rounds off the greatest Bloodstock ever
- "A perfect example of one great song overshadowing the rest of the record": Golden Earring sharpen their sound and score an MTV hit on Cut
- “The sound of post-war German culture rebuilding itself through the prism of the avant-garde”: Cluster’s noise terrorism revisited on Cluster II
August 10
- "They have a fanbase so ardent that one fella has rocked up in a band-branded suit of armour." Heriot battle technical issues but eventually win big at Bloodstock
- "Curious true metal fans who came to judge the 'pop punk' band have clearly been won over." Creeper's Bloodstock debut is a dramatic triumph
- "Machine Head live to defy expectations." Robb Flynn and co. conquer Bloodstock with an explosive, emotional headline set
August 9
- Lacuna Coil's Bloodstock set shows they are a band operating at the peak of their powers
- One of British metal's most important bands just played their final ever UK festival show - and it was one hell of a goodbye
- One of the most legendary cult metal projects ever finally came to the UK and put on a hell of a show...but one big thing stopped it being a classic
- Sleep Token cameo, Black Sabbath jam, a surprise Robb Flynn...I think I might have just watched Trivium play their greatest festival set ever. Yep, even better than THAT Download one
August 8
- “Any package shining further light on the their singular brilliance is to be welcomed”: Be-Bop Deluxe’s The Albums – 1974-1976
- "This is the moment to rediscover Chicago": Greatest Hits Expanded charts the band's evolution from a jazz-soul-psychedelic-brassy-hippy melange into accomplished balladeers
- "A surprisingly vibrant, bright-side kind of album": The Black Keys sound euphoric on the dreamy 60s psych-soul sound of No Rain, No Flowers
August 7
- “Inventive, unconventional approach sets them apart from lazy assumptions of what prog was doing in the early 70s”: Jethro Tull’s Still Living In The Past
- "The album is packed with arena-sized intensity": Halestorm finally scale rock's summit on Everest
August 6
- “It’s a team of terrifying quality – but the result is no face-melting noodle-fest. Everything stems from musical ideas”: Gavin Harrison and Nick Johnston’s Early Mercy
August 5
- What happens when a Eurovision band turns to the dark side? Lord Of The Lost’s new album almost answers that question
- “Easily the band’s boldest work to date, boasting some of their most interesting songs yet”: Halestorm reach a career peak with new album Everest
- Marshall Kilburn III Bluetooth speaker review
August 4
- "Do we have any glue sniffers in the house tonight?" Amid all the life-affirming scenes of wild collective euphoria, Oasis' superb fifth night at London's Wembley Stadium shows Liam and Noel Gallagher still have punk rock souls
- "Thirty-four minutes of pure unadulterated sonic sludge": Black Sabbath tweak the formula on Master Of Reality, invent even more genres
August 3
- “Inspired, uniformly excellent music – both vintage and fresh”: Styx continue their prog-powered renaissance with Circling From Above
August 2
- "Jacoby Shaddix is practically bouncing on the spot between songs, visibly thrilled." Headlining a major European festival for the very first time, Papa Roach's Wacken performance is a loud, proud and unbowed triumph. Pressure? What pressure?
August 1
- “As well as delighting fans, it may surprise the curious with its accessibility and tunefulness”: Discipline’s Breadcrumbs, their first album in eight years
- "Bursting with heart and character": De'Wayne's June is the sound of a musician with grand ambitions