Reviews archive

February 2025

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21 articles

February 21
- "It couldn't get any better than that, and it didn't": David Lee Roth teaches a lesson in how not to conduct a solo career in five albums
February 19
- "The vocals make David Vincent sound like Sabrina Carpenter." This Consequence is the heaviest Killswitch Engage album in over a decade. And it absolutely slaps
February 17
- "I feel like crying, that was beautiful." Spiritbox's Alexandra Palace show is the end of an era: where they go from rising stars to metal's next big thing
- "A glossy heavy metal album that doesn't quite have the songs to make it stand out from the crowd, despite the talent of the players": John Sykes, Carmine Appice and Tony Franklin conjure up a cult favourite on debut Blue Murder album
February 14
- “Even at their most blistering there’s a blazing technicality to everything they do”: Jinjer’s virtuosic Duél is not for the faint-hearted
- “A classic style of hopeful, melancholy which will pleasantly trigger Moody Blues fans”: John Lodge’s Love Conquers All EP
- "Fuelled by despair as usual but also simplicity, the songs are rock throughout": Manic Street Preachers show that rage never sleeps on Critical Thinking
February 11
- "Gothic metal’s crown isn’t going anywhere anytime soon." Lacuna Coil go heavier than ever on Sleepless Empire with help from guests Ash Costello and Randy Blythe
February 10
- "A towering two-hour concept work on a Norse saga scale." Motorpsycho and Ståle Storlokken's The Death Defying Unicorn is a "battered, barnacled beauty."
- “Few bands could have so effortlessly handled Wembley as this”: Papa Roach put on a nostalgic classic in London’s most historic arena
- "A stonewall classic and a fine ending": Screaming Trees mix psychedelia with melancholy on swansong album Dust
February 7
- “His vocals were often trammelled in Nightwish… but here he lets loose throughout”: Marko Hietala blends love and instinct on Roses From The Deep
- "There's a rejuvenated feel to this reunion album": Dream Theater's dream team return with a sharper-edged heaviness to the sound on Parasomnia
- “Most is more than familiar… but there’s a sense of excitement in having this chemistry back in place”: Dream Theater’s Parasomnia largely lives up to the hype
February 6
- "It doesn't wholly demystify them, but it reveals the human brilliance at their heart": Becoming Led Zeppelin strips away the mystique to present the birth of a legend
- "The daddy of prog metal drumming finally came home with the milk." Mike Portnoy is back with Dream Theater, and he's helped them make a banger of an album in Parasomnia
February 5
- “Being dramatic is their charm, but here they let go of a degree of preciousness, allowing themselves to react to the audience’s gusto”: Riverside are charged up on Live ID
February 4
- They've toured with Slipknot, become unlikely ambassadors for Ukraine and smashed main stages at festivals. Now Jinjer have made their darkest, angriest album yet with Duél
February 3
- "Gary Moore may have been many things but he was no Paul Rodgers": Gary Moore finds grit but lacks groove on Corridors Of Power
February 2
- Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine promised “the metal tour of 2025” – and The Poisoned Ascendancy may well have delivered
February 1
- "Steely Dan had the capacity to be both inscrutable and popular, an enviable place to be": Steely Dan's tunes are rich and assured on the nonchalant Katy Lied