That's Not Metal

It's an episode of massive events for hardcore as we discuss Turnstile's massive Washington Monument benefit show, Single Print Index's new EP drop, plus the unlikely Spiritbox to Neurosis connection to have emerged this week, and one of the most absurdly large release dumps of the year.

Releases:
Tony Iommi - From the Dark
Polyphia - Be Not Afraid
Ghostemane - AM:FM
Stand Atlantic - GODBREATH
Forbidden - Forbidden
Fake Names - Punk Ruins
Kohti Tuhoa - Paratiisi
Mental Cruelty - Echoes of a Forlorn Land
Boss Keloid...

We've got a reviews bag full of mavericks and outsiders making some big crazy choices and marching to their own drum with their records this month as we look at albums from Haywire, unpeople, New World Man, Wolves in the Throne Room, Noctule, Godflesh, Smoulder, & Bombstrap.

Haywire 19:15
unpeople 44:38
New World Man 1:10:50
Wolves in the Throne Room 1:26:35
Noctule 1:42:04
Godflesh 1:55:22
Smoulder 2:14:09
Bombstrap 2:33:25

There's big surprise releases from Deafheaven and Power Trip, major Nightwish and Judas Priest line-up shifts, a tremendous festival announcement from Fortress, live shows from Joyce Manor, Blaze Bayley, and Khemmis, but no one wants to talk about any of it because the world's up in arms about James Hetfield.

Releases:
Caspian - Caspian
The Number Twelve Looks Like You - Howls from the Holographic Heart
Throes - The Colorless Light of Emptiness
John Zorn - Flatlands
Eivør - Tungl
Insomnium - Netherworlds
The Keening - Devotion
Master - Am...

Nails tear through the UK, Trivium unveil their Eastern darkness-inspired new album, and Aerosmith plot their own Back to the Beginning style party.

Releases:
Slope - Same Kids. Just Louder.
Greta van Fleet - Palace for the People
unpeople - we are unpeople
Wage War - Landfall
Left to Suffer - Unwelcome Guest
Twin Temple - Doomed Lovers
Graveyard - Fever
Meryl Streek - Stories They Don’t Teach You At School
Wolfbrigade - Howl From Underground
RAM - Against
Smoulder - Witch Wife in an Alien Wo...

We've arrived at our annual Damnation Festival preview Album Club pack as we pull out Cult of Luna's 21st century post-metal benchmark Somewhere Along the Highway, Walls of Jericho's 00s metallic hardcore smackdown The American Dream, the 2010s sludgy powerviolence of Weekend Nachos' Worthless (featuring "Pat Patterson" and "Troe Johman"), and The Berzerker's Aussie gabber death metal Dissimulate.

It's real highs and lows in the news for rock music this week, with incredibly exciting reveals from Disfear and Repugnant, the 2027 line-up announcements from Slam Dunk and ArcTanGent, but also the news of Enter Shikari's incoming hiatus and the mountain-moving loss of Venom's Cronos, the forefather of extreme metal without whom our world is unthinkable.

Releases:
Amon Amarth - The Allfather Awakens
Twin Atlantic - Separation from the Animals
Imminence - Axis Mundi
Escape the Fate - The Last Goodbye
Miss May I - No Place for Me
To the Grave...

There are surprising pivots towards our world from the pop sphere this time from Miley Cyrus and Chvrches alongside new singles from Bullet for My Valentine & several others, live trips to see Electric Wizard & more, there's a mindblowing milestone for Judas Priest's Ian Hill, a bizarre multi-pronged bust-up with Frankie Palmeri at the centre, and sadly another passing of a punk and hardcore legend with the loss of New Found Glory's Chad Gilbert.

Releases:
Holding Absence - Modern Life is Lonely
Emma Ruth Rundle - These Killing Times
Boy Harsher - Get Mean
The...

September gets us all sludgy as reviews pore over new Mastodon, Green Lung, Anthrax, Chat Pile, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Sleep, Devil Master, & Wrong Man, Evanescence playing the UK's biggest arena, and Tony Iommi being the boss yet again.

Mastodon 38:10
Green Lung 1:22:40
Anthrax 1:48:34
Chat Pile 2:07:25
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats 2:26:18
Sleep 2:42:26
Devil Master 2:52:30
Wrong Man 3:10:13

First and foremost, we try to speak to the awful loss of Every Time I Die legend Andy Williams. From there we tackle new singles from Slipknot and Spiritbox, the hallucinatory hellscape stories related to Muse's Meta troubles and Breaking Benjamin's modder feud tirades, and put our tin foil hats to theorise that SURELY the Gallows teasing can't just be for vinyl reissues...

Releases:
Green Lung - Necropolitan
Brian Fallon - Not Bad for New Jersey
The Meffs - Business
Wrong Man - Here’s That Feeling
Killing of a Sacred Deer - En...

This week we look back on a historic moment of live music for our podcast in our combined Big Goth Weekend with a run of shows from The Cure, Outbreak/All Points East with an epochal headlining set from Deftones, and our AFI watch finally being brought to an end with their first UK headline shows in 16 years.

Releases:
Mastodon - Marrow Deep
Beartooth - Pure Ecstasy
In This Moment - Witch
Dinosaur Jr. - There Near
Kamelot - Dark Asylum
Flotsam and Jetsam - Rats in the Temple
Exumer - D...

Rivers Cuomo's QR code woes, some goth-pop flourish and questioning what even is an album lead the way for TNM reviews this time with Weezer's Gold Album, Chelsea Wolfe, Electric Callboy, Living Weapon, The Night Eternal, and Zorn going under the magnifying glass.

Weezer 30:05
Chelsea Wolfe 1:07:20
Electric Callboy 1:34:27
Living Weapon 1:58:41
The Night Eternal 2:14:36
Zorn 2:25:33

Chelsea Wolfe's new album release show and Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American set arrive for a lucky few in the UK, there's new music from Haywire, God's Hate, and Down, the sad news of the passing of legendary ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard, extreme legend Justin Broadrick's appearance on the new Phoebe Bridgers album, and the craziest stadium support act announcement of all time.

Releases:
Weezer - Weezer (The Gold Album)
Chelsea Wolfe - The Dark
The Night Eternal - Cold Velvet
Fen - Elemental Part One: Mourning Earth
Azatoth - Carnal Lust...

This week we discuss how Bloodstock's 2027 announcement doubles down on a new direction, and pull out some of the lesser discussed gems within the line-up.

Releases:
Various Artists - A Tribute to Smashing Pumpkins: Sending Hearts to All My Dearies
Dead Tired - Hornets of Fall
Living Weapon - Death in the Family
Sweeping Promises - You Say I Romanticize
Invocation Ritual - Altered Reality
Holissstik - Chapter 1: This Endless Solitude

After a week of exasperating and confusing news we discuss the unconfirmed firing of Sid Wilson by Slipknot and Merauder's absolutely bizarre crashout, as well as big live announcements from Wacken, Megadeth, Mick Gordon, and the potential dungeon synth takeover of hardcore.

Releases:
Electric Callboy - Tanzneid
John Carpenter - Cathedral
Cancer Bats - Give Me Dirt
Citizen - Halcyon Blues
Jamie Lenman - Puke
Ceremony - Tell Me Your Dream
Public Opinion - The Curse of Public Opinion
Negative Frame - Break the Ice
Wealthy Women - Children<...

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