The Dreaded Press

Follow The Never Ending Way of Orwarrior deep into the wind-swept dunes of Middle Eastern power metal with progressive Isreali dramatists Orphaned Land.

The Sections EP is the self-funded opening salvo from Young London tech-metal extremists The Safety Fire; I get a feeling it won’t be the last.

Blueneck are bigger than the term post-rock, so they say, but second album The Fallen Host is as canonical it could be, in all the best possible ways.

Another Belgian oddity from the Jezus Factory – if you’re looking for some dreamy summer-y psyche-pop, it’s time to grab a cold beer and say Hello Strumpets.

A second single from young grunge-revivalists Japanese Voyeurs fails to impress with its uninspired retreading of ground conquered two decades beforehand.

Los Angelino indie-rock oddballs The Outline are more fey, more moody and more dramatic than before on Phantasmagoria. But can the kids see the curve coming?

Until We Are Outnumbered sees Danish bruisers The Kandidate combine the simple and punchy elements of thrash and hardcore to neck-shattering contemporary effect.

Yet more by-the-numbers box-ticking chart fodder from Young Guns, recently voted “band most likely to disappear up the collective arse of Lostprophets”.

Calgary metallers Divinity bring down The Singularity, a maelstrom of hooky and progressive technical metal that sounds like the end of everything you know.

This is The New Enemy: four Toronto guys with buzzcuts bringing back the vest-clad and swaggering toughness of early proto-hardcore on their Shakedown EP.