Louder calls 'When I Die...' is "the most important British metal record of 2020", while Angry Metal Guy says it is "a heart-wrenching album whose simplicity in D-beats, stunning tremolo, sustained overlays, desperate vocals, and just a dash of post and black is truly refreshing". Kerrang insists on lyrics being "at their most personal and most blunt here", while Stereogum simply calls the album "phenomenal".

The UK rock/metal publication Metal Hammer called Canadian rapper Backxwash one of “modern rap's more avant garde artists” after hearing her EP 'Stigmata' and her debut album 'God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It. MH's online output described her debut as "thrilling trap metal" and "fucking brilliant". Complex sees two reasons for it - her lyrics are cathartic, but also dark, aggressive, and loaded with goth and biblical imagery; her music is powerful and dark, with plenty of classic rock and metal samples.

"It’s an album of earth tones -- oranges, dark greens and browns -- that comes just in time for autumn" - Brooklyn Vegan writes about the new album by British comedian and musician Matt Berry. "A lonely, lovelorn quality... a heartfelt album" - the Times says. "Matt Berry is on wonderful form" - Clash Music reviews.

"'Untitled (Rise)' hardly yields highlights because the quality never wavers... It manages to be as lyrically unflinching as the music is compelling... You’d call it the album of the year if its predecessor wasn’t just as good" - Guardian's Alexis Petridis writes in a review of Sault's new album, anonymous neo-soul-funk band's second double album in just over 12 weeks, and their fourth in 18 months. The new album is "more obviously dancefloor-focused – its influences shifting from house to disco, from the perspiration-soaked post-punk funk to smooth 80s boogie, from sorrow and soothing to empowerment and resistance".

"Their hypnotic orchestral folk songs 'come howling after' an unfathomable god" - the Guardian writes about singer-sogwriter Anjimile's debut LP 'Giver Taker'. Paste Magazine says "Anjimile’s story is an uncommon one, but an uplifting one nonetheless: A trans person—in the midst of battling his own demons—excavates the most troubling parts of his past and ultimately seeks out catharsis". The Line of Best Fit says Anjimile "channels the hurt through extraordinary delicate songs where harmonies wrap around each other with a spectral quality, and the dripping rain of picked guitar strings decorate the walls".

Moroccan-French quartet Nadya! released their debut album - a "fusion of contemporary rock and funk and ancient traditional Moroccan musical forms including gnawa and chaabi", the Quietus says in their review of fresh sound on ancient music on 'Bab L' Bluz'. "And while influenced by music from across North Africa there is a fluid thread... to what they describe as the origins of the music, gnawa trance, and Malian blues".

Their first incarnation, in the 1990s, was a dance band Sub Sub made of ravers, then the Manchester trio reincarnated as a indie-rock band Doves in the 00s, now their third coming, after a decade long hiatus, is a pop-rock band, obviously happy to be making music. And critics love it. Stereogum chose 'The Universal Want' as their latest Album of the week because "their roughshod-then-glimmering anthems always sounded like something magical striving to break its tethers and take off". It's also Alexis Petridis' album of the week because "it's all heartfelt, well done". NME gave the album four stars (of five) saying they "bring thumping fairground anthems, and words of hope". Clash calls it "a long-awaited treat, it deserves a warm welcome".

"Regrowth’s sound is a grand, intense form of hardcore — huge, anthemic, emotionally wracked, full of big-gesture hooks. They scream hard, play big riffs, and put busy textures into their sound... The songs on 'Lungs' are long and ambitious and sometimes beautiful. They can be heavy, but they always have hooks" - Stereogum writes about the debut album by the Sardinian band.

Dutch-Iranian singer Sevdaliza's 'Shabrang is an album of sad music bringing joy through sheer beauty. The album is slow, but her voice gives it strength. It's pop music, but its sadness makes it alternative. Technically, there's not much music here, but its emotional maximalism gives it richness. A case of beautiful alter-pop music...

"'Mach's Hard Lemonade' favors brevity, and there's something very effective in our information-overload times about a 9-song, 22-minute album that never lets up and lends itself to replays" - Brooklyn Vegan stated about Mach-Hommy's new album. Both of the essential elements are upped on this one -"Mach-Hommy's production sounds bolder and richer than usual on this album, and his rapping is louder, clearer, and more attention-grabbing, but he hasn't abandoned the psychedelic, radically left-of-center sound that's made him such a cultishly loved artist in today's rap underground".