That's Not Metal

This humid summer gets that bit muckier as we check out the UK's growing slam, brutal death metal, and goregrind event at Offal Fest, as well as check in on Avenged Sevenfold's latest piece of craziness, and sadly speak to the passing of all time pillar of hardcore Lou Koller of Sick of It All.

Releases:
Waterparks - Jinx
No Pressure - NP Style
The Hu - Hun
Madball - Not Your Kingdom
REZN - Cycles in the Infinite Dream
Jordsjø - Pestkrønikene
Sallow Moth - Hydrophilous Brood
Linnéa RK...

At least one of the most anticipated heavy albums this decade hits our radars this month as Loathe, Muse, The Menzingers, The Xcerts, Fuming Mouth, No Cure, and Arise From Worms are reviewed, along with speculation about the seemingly imminent return of Gallows.

Loathe 37:32
Muse 1:09:13
The Menzingers 1:31:55
The Xcerts 1:49:20
Fuming Mouth 2:11:10
No Cure 2:24:04
Arise From Worms 2:33:29

It's the week where br00tal returned (and football season is over), as we make our way to Bring Me the Horizon's Count Your Blessings | Repented shows and into the re-recorded album for the biggest event in 2006 deathcore since... 2006.

Releases:
Final Resting Place - Third World Tribunal
Loathe - A Stranger to You
Motionless In White - Decades
Boundaries - Yearning: The unbeautiful after
Protest the Hero - Within
As It Is - As It Is
The Menzingers - Everything I Ever Saw
Quicksand - Bring on the Psychics
...

Sound the charge, into glory ride, as Album Clubs look at the maddening effect Twenty One Pilots' ragga-pop Blurryface had on rock, the most metal band of all Manowar's debut Battle Hymns, Turnover's mastering of emo dreampop on Peripheral Vision, and one of the 21st century's greatest and wickedest rock bands The Devil's Blood with The Time of Time No Evermore.

This episode was originally published July 2025 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

Both Metallica's No Repeats weekend and My Chemical Romance's 20th anniversary Black Parade musical theatre reimagining hit UK stadiums, plus Damon Albarn beefs with an unlikely underground metal target.

Releases:
Bring Me the Horizon - Count Your Blessings | Repented
The Plot In You - The Plot In You
The Xcerts - i think i want to go home now
Show Me the Body - Alone Together
DevilDriver - Strike and Kill
No Cure - It Is Going to Get Dark
Daydream Plus - Second Last Day of Summer
If These...

Two hard and heavy events hit the UK heat this week, as Outbreak Festival brings Hatebreed, Converge, Alexisonfire, Basement, & loads more, and Acid Bath's mad reunion brings the swamp to town their first ever UK appearance.

Releases:
Muse - The WOW! Signal
The Pretty Reckless - Dear God
Butthole Surfers - After the Astronaut
The Dead Pioneers - Wagon Burner
Truck Violence - The Weathervane is My Body
Junius - Sotera
Phantom - Not Midnight Yet
Speedslut - Cimbrian Rites
Nunslaughter - Satanic Chaos Legions
Astriferous - Atavistic...

From twenty year waits to four month breaks, we mop up some of the biggest heavy records of the last few weeks reviewing Converge's second album of 2026, Marmozets, Static Dress, Turnover, Guilt Trip, Warning, Stormkeep, & Funebrarum.

Converge 26:04
Marmozets 48:34
Static Dress 1:15:35
Turnover 1:30:00
Guilt Trip 1:41:39
Warning 1:53:38
Stormkeep 2:20:01
Funebrarum 2:38:26

Sam returns from Asia (and through a robo-mic, sorry about that) to talk about Japanese hardcore hijinks at Bloodaxe Festival, Voivod and Midnight speed through the UK together, and we unpack the news no one saw coming that Faith No More are returning in 2027.

Releases:
Warning - Rituals of Shame
There Were Wires - Vessel
Chainlacing - Messuage
Iron Kobra - Eternal Dagger
Saidan - Fangdriller: Scars Beneath Memory’s Wrist
Mork - Monolitt
Einherjer - Lifeblood
Liminal Sky - All Tomorrow’s Darkness

On top of a stream of new music from across the heavy spectrum, we weigh in on the debate following End It's targeting of the man in a banana costume at their show, why the frustration and resentment towards meme behaviour and influencer culture exists at subcultural events, and whether this particular incident went too far.

Releases:
Sublime - Until the Sun Explodes
Sleeping With Sirens - An Ending In Itself
Pussy Riot - CYKA
Yes - Aurora
Tarja - Frisson Noir
Swiss Army Wife - I Love You, But I Hate...

Fortress Festival returns bringing worldwide black metal exclusives to the British seaside, with Gallowbraid, Old Man's Child, Dødheimsgard, Misþyrming, A Forest of Stars & more darkening the skies over the 2026 bill.

Releases:
Devin Townsend - The Moth
Turnover - Down on Earth
Static Dress - Injury Episode
Sparta - Cut a Silhouette
‘68 - They Are Survived
Healing Wound - Bodies of Heavenly Violence
Deafkids - Cicatrizes do Futuro
All Them Witches - House of Mirrors
Elder - Through Zero
Monolord - Neverending
Godthrymm - Projections
Fune...

It's all about vaporwave prog, French oi, and choo choo train black metal as a whip round the underground picks up Basement, Frozen Soul, Haggard Cat, Fire-Toolz, Prisonnier du temps, A Forest of Stars, Panopticon, and Scimitar for the month's most blistering records.

Basement 15:40
Frozen Soul 33:44
Haggard Cat 51:10
Fire-Toolz 1:05:09
Prisonnier du temps 1:15:41
A Forest of Stars 1:25:27
Panopticon 1:47:30
Scimitar 2:02:45

Anthrax's first single in ten years leads us to consider the thrash legends' creative relevancy in 2026, and Avenged Sevenfold going fully indepedent by buying back their rights brings reminiscing on ten years of their album The Stage.

Releases:
Marmozets - CO.WAR.DICE.
A - Prong
Dimmu Borgir - Grand Serpent Rising
XCOMM - Time to Burn
Armored Saint - Emotion Factory Reset
David Eugene Edwards - Mercurial Silence
Blindead 23 - Deuterium
Witching Hour - Descending.. Where Time Has Ceased to Exist
Lore - Psychotic Trance of the Black...

Iron Maiden's brand new documentary Burning Ambition hits cinema screens, and there's new singles from Green Lung announcing their new album Necropolitan and from brat superstar Charli XCX making ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ck music.

Releases:
Periphery - A Pale White Dot
The All-American Rejects - Sandbox
Super Sometimes - Show the World What’s Underneath
Held. - Grey
Von Groove - Born to Rock
Pro-Pain - Stone Cold Anger
Acid Reign - Daze of the Week
Jungle Rot - Cruel Face of War
Nedgravd - Ascension
Akem Manah - Threnodies
Ty...

This week we make our way back to Incineration to once again kick off the festival season with a scorching of black and death metal as the likes of Dragged Into Sunlight, Of Feather and Bone, Tomb Mold and Scimitar rip it up across London stages.

Releases:
Black Veil Brides - Vindicate
Basement - WIRED
Koyo - Barely Here
Social Distortion - Born to Kill
The Flatliners - Cold World
Haggard Cat - The Pain That Orbits Life
Geoff Tate - Operation: Mindcrime III
Frozen Soul - No Place of...

Creeper's vampire extravaganza Sangui-Tour hits small venues in the UK for a full celebration of blooddrinking and leather.

Releases:
Foo Fighters - Your Favorite Toy
The Amity Affliction - House of Cards
Atreyu - The End is Not the End
Failure - Location Lost
Terror - Still Suffer
Roman Candle - Unadulterated
Armed for Apocalypse - The Earth is Breathing Beneath Me
Plini - An Unnameable Desire
Einar Solberg - Vox Occulta
Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell - The Trouble With the Shovell
Demon Spell - Blessed Be...

Viral microtonal aliens, surprise drops, and defiant, powerful final bows rule the month with At the Gates, Enter Shikari, Corrosion of Conformity, Spirit Adrift, Angine de Poitrine, Portrayal of Guilt, Poison Ruïn, and Immolation. One last time: Go!

At the Gates 18:20
Enter Shikari 49:18
Corrosion of Conformity 1:18:23
Spirit Adrift 1:33:43
Angine de Poitrine 1:49:00
Portrayal of Guilt 2:14:02
Poison Ruïn 2:30:48
Immolation 2:51:47

We launch the polaris and get into one of our giddiest ever album clubs on Megadeth's delirious Rust In Peace, the suffocating global anger of Killing Joke 2003, the launchpad for second wave emo in Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary, and Gorguts returning to once again up the game for avant-garde death metal with Colored Sands.

This episode was originally published April 2025 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

Bring Me the Horizon make the genuinely absurd announcement of Count Your Blessings 20th anniversary celebrations, Nine Inch Noize owns Coachella, and Evanescence lead the singles in their team-up with the Fish.

Releases:
Nine Inch Noize - Nine Inch Noize
Skindred - You Got This
.gif from god - Dissimulation
The Last Ten Seconds of Life - The Dead Ones
Prince Daddy & the Hyena - Hotwire Trip Switch
Hold My Own - Pay No Mind
Mat McNerney - The Bones of the Dead, or Three Turns Counterclockwise
Crippled Black Phoenix...

Tracks from Warning, Holding Absence, Health and more head up the week's music, and we announce our first massive band special for 2026.

Releases:
Bilmuri - Kinda Hard
Lord of the Lost - Opvs Noir Vol. 3
Truckfighters - Masterflow
As Everything Unfolds - DID YOU ASK TO BE SET FREE?
Tigercub - Nets to Catch the Wave
Love Rarely - Pain Travels
Bodysnatcher - Hell is Here, Hell is Home
Metal Church - Dead to Rights
Spirit Adrift - Infinite Illumination
The Melvins with Napalm Death - Savage Imperial...

A lot of heavy feelings this week sadly, with the losses of Bo Lueders, James Lollar of Gost, and Ross the Boss. Elsewhere the Kreator/Carcass/Exodus/Nails package lights up the UK, Damnation 2026 unveil all their headliners, Converge unveil a second album, and another messed up story comes out of the world of hardcore so... yeah, one of those weeks.

Releases:
Don Broco - Nightmare Tripping
Black Label Society - Engines of Demolition
Myrath - Wilderness of Mirrors
Moodring - death fetish
Chamber - this is goodbye…
A Winter’s Remorse - Th...

TNM March reviews bag just catches the most brain-breaking, beautiful return as Neurosis emerge with a whole new album, alongside another return from Poison the Well, Lamb of God, Gaerea, Hellripper, Aggressive Perfector, Mallavora, & Sweet Pill.

Neurosis 11:30
Poison the Well 56:10
Lamb of God 1:17:13
Gaerea 1:39:08
Hellripper 1:59:30
Aggressive Perfector 2:15:00
Mallavora 2:25:00
Sweet Pill 2:31:51

Muse beam back down to us with their new album announcement, along with music from Black Veil Brides, Stormkeep, and Dropkick Murphys/Haywire, there's a live report from deathcore central with Bodysnatcher, Ingested, Psycho-Frame and Big Ass Truck, and we pay tribute to Motörhead's second-longest serving member Phil Campbell.

Releases:
Poison the Well - Peace In Place
Exodus - Goliath
Gaerea - Loss
Filth is Eternal - Impossible World
Gladie - No Need to Be Lonely
Stainless - Lady of Lust and Steel
Egregore - It Echoes in the Wild

A curtain of biblical darkness falls upon Album Club in the unofficial Sabbath album The Devil You Know by Heaven & Hell, 16 Horsepower's dark country classic Sackcloth 'n' Ashes, Cave In's space rock leap Jupiter, and metalcore pioneers Integrity making their most no fucks given record Howling, for the Nightmare Shall Consume.

This episode was originally published March 2025 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

New singles from the likes of Gouge Away, Drug Church, and Devin Townsend hit our ears, epic metal heroes Eternal Champion surprise drop a bold and ambitious new EP, and there's hardcore drama cause when is there not?

Releases:
Lamb of God - Into Oblivion
Angus McSix - Angus McSix and the All-Seeing Astral Eye
Sweet Pill - Still There’s a Glow
Shoreline - Is This the Low Point or the Moment After?
UnityTX - Somewhere, In Between
Gong - Bright Spirit
Monstrosity - Screams from Beneath the Surface
No...

Basement, Blackbraid, and Portrayal of Guilt give us a diverse pack of new songs to chew in, questions on what is the greatest musical city and generationally phased out songs, and we respond to the news that industrial giants Godflesh are hanging up their live instruments for good.

Releases:
Rob Zombie - The Great Satan
Carpenter Brut - Leather Temple
The Gloom in the Corner - Royal Discordance
Nothing - A Short History of Decay
Final Gasp - New Day Symptoms
Matador - Above, Below and So
Harrowed - The Eternal...

This month brings us one of the most daunting, monolithic, and outlandish reviews bags we've ever had, as we tackle Converge, Sylosis, Mayhem, Worm, Pony, Cryptic Shift, Hällas, and Killing Pace. Slap on your spacesuit, we're adventure rocking.

Converge 27:36
Sylosis 56:02
Mayhem 1:12:56
Worm 1:30:33
Pony 1:43:00
Cryptic Shift 1:52:40
Hällas 2:12:10
Killing Pace 2:30:20

Party time at TNM: the mythical drought comes to an end, alongside new tracks from the Foo Fighters and Don Broco/Nickelback and grand line-up unveilings from Arch Enemy and Nevermore.

Releases:
Sylosis - The New Flesh
New Found Glory - Listen Up!
Killing Pace - HCPM
Exhumed - Red Asphalt
Coscradh - Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld
The Magus - Daemonosophia
Lead Injector - Witching Attack

Hyperblasts is back to cover what we missed from the Grammys, UK live shows from Home Front to Korpiklaani, Knocked Loose and Denzel Curry's collab single, and the discussion around While She Sleeps' video announcement for their stepping back from touring.

Releases:
Hällas - Panorama
Softcult - When a Flower Doesn’t Grow
Karnivool - In Veses
Puscifer - Normal Isn’t
Tailgunner - Midnight Blitz
Tumour - Human Salvage
Uncultivates - This Will Become Clear Later, Like the French Revolution
Mayhem - Liturgy of Death
Night of the V...

Looking back at the records January gave us we give an honest assessment of the final album from Megadeth, alongside Kreator, Urne, Møl, Joyce Manor, The Ruins of Beverast, and Backengrillen. Thanks for all the riffs, MegaDave.

Megadeth 20:11
Kreator 1:06:31
Urne 1:22:47
Møl 1:38:35
Joyce Manor 1:49:44
The Ruins of Beverast 2:02:15
Backengrillen 2:14:11

TNM talks bands we would have introduced to ourselves at an earlier age, a breadth of new tracks from Def Leppard, Exodus, Immolation and Haggard Cat, and Cryptopsy take to the UK with 200 Stab Wounds for 30 years of None So Vile.

Releases:
Megadeth - Megadeth
Poppy - Empty Hands
Crystal Lake - The Weight of Sound
Textures - Genotype
The Damned - Not Like Everybody Else
Backengrillen - Backengrillen
Barbarian - Reek of God
Ligation - After Gods

2025 Album Clubs come from the land where the mullet attacks: Sabaton's Swedish concept album Carolus Rex, Hatebreed's hardcore benchmark Satisfaction is the Death of Desire, Visigoth's dungeon-keeping The Revenant King, and Family Force 5 give us Business Up Front/Party in the Back.

This episode was originally published January 2025 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

New album singles from Poison the Well, Lamb of God, and Static Dress keep 2026 starting up, along with a killer first band announcement from Damnation Festival, and announcement of our first Patreon special for 2026.

Releases:
Kreator - Krushers of the World
Kid Kapichi - Fearless Nature
Greywind - Severed Heart City
Ov Sulfur - Endless
Blanket - True Blue
Serpent Column - Aion of Strife
Rifle - Rifle
Push - Plowing Ahead
Crush Your Soul - Ice Water
I Promised the World - I Promised the World
...

TNM usher in the new year with hopes, questions and predictions for 2026, and some familiar faces already poking their heads above the parapets for the year ahead.

Releases:
Ulver - Neverland
Fuath - III
Woe - Legacies of Human Frailty
Paleface Swiss - The Wilted EP
Alter Bridge - Alter Bridge
The Ruins of Beverast - Tempelschlaf

Right before Christmas our last bash for 2025 is TNM Awards looking back over the highs and lows, the stories, the icons, the presidents, and the circuses that made the year in rock music what it was:
Most Improved Band
Song of the Year
Worst Song of the Year
Hero of the Year
Villain of the Year
Best New Band
Biggest Disappointment
Gig of the Year
EP of the Year
Artwork of the Year
Movie of the Year
Comeback of the Year
Surprise of the Year
Outstanding...

Our second go of albums of the year for 2025 with Sam and Mark celebrating records from hair metal to hardcore, and your results for the TNM listener poll as we see who's bringing it home in a year filled with past winners and big dog contenders.

2025 Album of the Year time begins on That's Not Metal, with our first lists from Perran and Elliot celebrating everything from synth-punk to goth-doom, power-goregrind to jazz-death, post-metal to metalcore, legendary rock icons to grimy dungeon crust bands that this year gave us.

This week we've got reports from My Bloody Valentine's first shows since 2018 as we see one of the loudest bands in the world, reaction to Alissa White-Gluz being out of Arch Enemy, and we tell you how to get involved in our 2025 end of year shows.

Releases:
The Algorithm - Recursive Infinity
The Pretty Wild - zero.point.genesis
Danko Jones - Leo Rising
Gasket - Gasket
Stryper - The Greatest Gift of All
Speedclaw - Stardust
Morbikon - Lost Within the Astral Crypts
Terror Corpse - Ash Eclipses Flesh<...

2025's final reviews is a crazy bag of disco mania with Creeper's Sanguivore II, Pupil Slicer, Drain, Astronoid, Home Front, Lamp of Murmuur, and Master's Hammer, bid farewell to Svalbard on tour, a new single from Converge, and about half an hour before our record, doing cartwheels at the reunion of Black Breath.

Creeper 31:51
Pupil Slicer 1:09:19
Drain 1:24:17
Astronoid 1:35:08
Home Front 1:47:29
Lamp of Murmuur 1:59:08
Master's Hammer 2:18:05

The UK's biggest dedicated extreme music fest at Damnation Festival goes bigger than ever for its 20th anniversary with a bonkers two day line-up featuring Corrosion of Conformity, Napalm Death, Deafheaven, Perturbator, Anaal Nathrakh, Amenra, Warning, Wormrot, Castle Rat, and so many more to crack our skulls.

Releases:
Of Mice & Men - Another Miracle
The Devil Wears Prada - Flowers
Rise of the Northstar - CHAPTER 04: RED FALCON SUPER BATTLE! NEO PARIS WAR!!
AVVT/PTTN - AVVT/PTTN
Lamp of Murmuur - The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy
1914 - Viribus Unitis
Bell...

It's that week in November where every big festival announces their lineup so we assess the bills of Download, Outbreak, 2000 Trees, & Slam Dunk 2026, Turnstile come through Ally Pally, and finally one of the UK's great rock bands Marmozets return with first new music in over 8 years.

Releases:
Drain - …Is Your Friend
Pupil Slicer - Fleshwork
Astronoid - Stargod
Set It Off - Set It Off
Agnostic Front - Echoes In Eternity
Cold Steel - Discipline & Punish
The Devil's Trade - Nincs Szennyezetlen Szép
Drowned In Silver - Mothers