That's Not Metal

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 - NeverlandFuath - IIIWoe - Legacies of Human FrailtyPaleface Swiss - The Wilted EPAlter Bridge - Alter BridgeThe 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 BandSong of the YearWorst Song of the YearHero of the YearVillain of the YearBest New BandBiggest DisappointmentGig of the YearEP of the YearArtwork of the YearMovie of the YearComeback of the YearSurprise of the YearOutstanding AchievementWorst Band of the YearUnsung HeroesStory of the YearBand of the Year

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 InfinityThe Pretty Wild - zero.point.genesisDanko Jones - Leo RisingGasket - GasketStryper - The Greatest Gift of AllSpeedclaw - StardustMorbikon - Lost Within the Astral CryptsTerror Corpse - Ash Eclipses FleshFlesher - Gore On GoreDome Runner - World PanopticonSpanish Love Songs - A Brief Intermission in the Flattening of TimeThe Halo Effect - We Are ShadowsExitWounds - An Offering to TragedyMaster’s Hammer - Maldoror Discomale//gaze - Too Late NowExcide - Bastard HymnsEquilibrium - EquinoxBlut Aus Nord - Ethereal HorizonsThe Ominous Circle - Cloven Tongues of FirePhobocosm - GatewayFessus - Subcutaneous Tomb1349 - Winter Mass

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 31:51Pupil Slicer 1:09:19Drain 1:24:17Astronoid 1:35:08Home Front 1:47:29Lamp of Murmuur 1:59:08Master'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 MiracleThe Devil Wears Prada - FlowersRise of the Northstar - CHAPTER 04: RED FALCON SUPER BATTLE! NEO PARIS WAR!!AVVT/PTTN - AVVT/PTTNLamp of Murmuur - The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy1914 - Viribus UnitisBell Witch & Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough Vol. IIRagana & Drowse - Ash SouvenirVoidCeremony - AbditumChairmaker - Leviathan CarcassVower - A Storm Lined With Silver

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 FriendPupil Slicer - FleshworkAstronoid - StargodSet It Off - Set It OffAgnostic Front - Echoes In EternityCold Steel - Discipline & PunishThe Devil's Trade - Nincs Szennyezetlen SzépDrowned In Silver - MothersOmnium Gatherum - May the Bridges We Burn Light the WayNovembre - Words of IndigoCentinex - With Guts and GloryGlorious Depravity - Death Never SleepsDysentery - Dejection ChrysalisYellow Eyes - Confusion GateWaldgeflüster - Knochengesänge I & IIQrixkuor - The Womb of the WorldPrimordial - Live In New York CityRecollection - Vivid DreamsAlexisonfire - Copies of Old Masters Vol 1

For Halloween we take the time for some horror movie questions including our pitch for a 2025 Freddy vs Jason, discuss Dogma's fracturing and Megadeth choosing to cover Metallica on their final album, live trips to Common Thread and Igorrr with Imperial Triumphant, and there is a Hagar horror on the loose...Releases:Soulfly - ChamaMammoth - The EndDayseeker - Creature in the Black NightDownswing - And Everything Was DarkAction/Adventure - Ever AfterSpiritual Cramp - RudeThe Acacia Strain - You Are Safe From God HerePsychonaut - World MakerAleksi Kii - VarjokuviaRolo Tomassi - In the Echo of All DreamsColdrain - OptimizeHeavensgate - A Heart is a Heavy BurdenMastiff - For All the Dead DreamsKrallice - No HopeCreeper - Sanguivore II: Mistress of DeathAvatar - Don’t Go in the ForestDespised Icon - Shadow WorkSpite - NEW WORLD KILLERWitch Fever - FEVEREATENGumm - Beneath the WheelChat Pile & Hayden Pedigo - In The Earth AgainPrimitive Man - ObservanceAnna von Hausswolff - IconoclastsBelieve In Nothing - RotBarren Path - GrievingGrave Ghoul - Gruesome and MacabreOne of Nine - Dawn of the Iron ShadowThron - VuriasOutlaw - Opus MortisRunemagick - Cycle of the Dying Sun (Dawn of Ashen Realms)Trivium - Struck DeadGoing Off - Kill List II

With autumn chill in the air we plunge into a stacked October reviews bunch of new AFI, Thrice, Miltarie Gun, Conjurer, Perturbator, Sanguisugabogg, Tribal Gaze, & Agriculture.AFI 24:01Thrice 47:28Militarie Gun 59:04Conjurer 1:11:12Perturbator 1:23:08Sanguisugabogg 1:33:37Tribal Gaze 1:44:21Agriculture 1:50:37