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 - Float & Aperture
Frontierer - Ultraviolet Paradise
Glorior Belli - Ave Marais
The Blood Mountain Black Metal Choir - Songs from a Dying Empire
Single Print Index - Confessions
Get the Shot - Crucifixion Depiction
Niis - Play Niis
Leng Tch’e - Hammered Into Collapse
Sequestrum / Torture Rack - Split
Queens of the Stone Age - Perfecth
Nickelback - Everything Under the Sun
Ministry - Hate to Go - Take Out or Delivery
Master Boot Record - Computer Metal
Darkest Hour - Suffer Divine
Rev3rent - She Let the World Run Rampant
Half Me - Dogma
Demonstration of Power - In the Name of…
Xentrix - Allied with the Enemy
Cirith Ungol - All the Shadows
Enslaved - Mið
Satanic Planet - Dead Deities
Dream Unending - Certain Uncertainties
Black Royal - Abyssian
Sea Bastard - Cyclopian
Pantheist - Uncanny Times
Dungeon Serpent - Lamentations of the Shadowkingdoms
Genital Shame - Wellness Plan
Grotesqueries - Nightmare Delirium

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 - Among the Seeds of Death
Mother of Graves - The Light That Keeps Us
Algor Mortis - The Art of Suffering
Shores of Null - Homesick
Lugubrious Garment - In the Wide Vale of Uncreated Night

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 World
Avrak - Avrak
Werewolves - You’re Weak and You Know You’re Weak
Goblin Cock - Traumanaut
Nowhere2Run - Bloodrave II

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 - LIBERATION FRONT
Haywire 617 - I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye
Cyadine - Violence In Measure
Bobbie Dazzle - Star Power
Haunt - Setting Course
Asomvel - Set Your World On Fire
Hippotraktor - Annihilist
Dissimulator - Artifice Dissolves
Deconsekrated - The Inexorable Transcendence of Death
Spirit Possession - Cathedral Speech
Xasthur - Open to Misinterpretation
From First to Last - We Were Bleeding Anyway
The Crawling - What We Leave Behind
Swans - Newly Sentient Being

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 Eternal - Obscured Horizons
Remote Viewing - State Violence
Early Moods - Ready for the Grave
Krallice - Scour Order
Runemagick - After Chaos: Nocturnal Vigil
CH’AHOM - Anthropic Rites of Sublimation
Combust / Blow Your Brains Out / Imposter - United Nations
Tom Morello - Everyone Gets Everything They Want
Coldrain - OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMIZE
Europe - Come This Madness
Keo - Put a Smile On For Me
Pain of Truth - Pain of Truth
Split Dogs - Nice N’ Rough
Burner - No One is Coming to Save Us
Cloven Hoof - Never a Prophet in Your Own Land
Bloodstain - Bloodstain
God Mother - Köttvärld
Crown of Magnetar - The Hollowing of Godflesh
Godflesh - Decay
Protomartyr - Hotel Usona
Brat - Manslayer
The Ocean - Solaris
Ethereal Tomb - Living to Dream Again
Noctule - Extinguish Thy Flame
Iskald - Curse of the Mind
Aborym - Metachaos
Krolok - Hričov – Súľov – Lietava
Massteron - Second in the Spheres
Profanation - Ultra-Noise Warfare
Scorpion Milk - Flesh Mask for Skulls

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 - Encephalic Angels
Harlott - Exsequiis
Dreadnought - Wars of Spirit // Wards of Light
Archgoat - Nightbringer, Lightbringer
Fluisteraars - Jacht der Mysterien
Epitaphe - III

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 - Death Mask Messiah
Ninth Realm - Damnation’s Veil
Russian Circles - Nine
Kulk - Choosing to Die
Rat Cage - Not Asking for Much
Static Abyss - The Dying Hunt
Gorod - The Ember Gone
Epicardiectomy - Dismal Landscapes of Voluptuous Pustular Cadaverosis
Turn of Phrase - Out in the Water
President - Blood of Your Empire
Showing Teeth - A Fate Worse Than Loneliness
Gradience - Anomaly
Airbourne - Airbourne
Audrey Horne - Achilles
156/Silence - From a Distance
Judiciary - Stalagmite Angels
Movements - Happier Now
Sleep - Hempispheres
Chat Pile - Who Loves the Sun
Arab Strap - Half-Told Tales
Sigh - Goh-ka
Devil Master - Bloody Dreams
Green Carnation - A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex
Tales of Perdition - The Theatre of Existence
Behemoth - I, Scvlptor

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 of Blasphemy
God’s Hate - Won’t Be Disgraced
Dark Funeral - A Beast to Praise

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
Hulder - Verbolgen
Dymna Lotva - Vyraj
Horrifier - Revelations of Gore

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 Olsson - Perfect Wave
Five Finger Death Punch - Legacy
Disfiguring the Goddess - Bloom
Nothingness - Godslaughter
Altarage - Cogwheel
Lipoma - Infernal Wounds of Ravenous Flesh
Jig-Ai - Jigoku
Taake - En skog av nidstang
Long Goodbye - A Whispered Promise of Failure
Shearling - Don’t Look at Me the Way a Dog Might Look at Your Leg

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
Fuming Mouth - The Ringing Bell
Fed Ash + HIRS - I AM BODY HORROR
Left to Die - Initium Mortis
Psycroptic - The Pulse of Annihilation
Imperium - Exodus Unknown
Emptiness - Nowhere Speaks
Haken - In a Fever Dream
Red Method - As In Life

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 Trees Could Talk - The Hidden Hand
Arise From Worms - A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction
Mourir - Nous, le venin

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 Unraveling
Nargaroth - Apocalyptic Steel
Forsmán - Brenndar Rústir & Fuðrandi Fjörur
Miracle - The Living Likeness of My Electric Daemon
Shane Embury - Bridge to Resolution
Mortiis - Ghosts of Europa
Fief - VII
Arcane Roots - A Wave, Across the Sea
Fiddlehead - Baby I’ll Change
Deep Purple - Splat!
Dominum - Night is Calling
Moonspell - Far From God
Witchsorrow - The Devil and All His Works
Soothsayer - The Unbinding
Mortem - Mørketid