Balf Quarry is the new album by eccentric noise-rock duo Magik Markers. That doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it means, though.

Daath are into some weird old Hebrew mystical stuff, but never mind that – The Concealers is confident and pacey slab of modern metal, and you should hear it.

Having called their new EP Drinking Den, Edinburgh folk-rockers Rieser must be fond of pubs. Which is lucky, because they’ll be playing in them a fair bit.

Misery Speaks have made it to album number three with Disciples of Doom, but its nostalgia-tinted melodic death cliches are nothing to get excited about.

Germany’s Bullet Monks are barrelling down the autobahn with a car full of Weapons of Mass Destruction – a solid rock’n'roll album that’s just a few years too late.

Northampton metallers Sacred Mother Tongue tick a lot of the fashionable boxes but fail to really thrill on solid but unoriginal debut album The Ruin of Man.

Still very much in business despite never quite meeting their hype, … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead return to Portsmouth with a pocketful of chaos.

Lacuna Coil’s fifth studio album Shallow Life shows the Italian goth-metal gang have a strong ear for epic hooks and pop melodics.

French duo Zarboth let it all hang out loose and crazy-like on their self-titled album of chaotic chaos-punk-metal-noise-jazz lunacy. Approach with caution.

Fun-loving Brummie ska-punk oiks Walk.DontWalk may not be odds-on favourites, but debut album A Horse to be Reckoned With manages to stay the course.