That's Not Metal

We were fully back on the ground for this year's Damnation Festival (41:12) to see sets from Anaal Nathrakh, Electric Wizard, Enslaved, Akercocke, and many more of the best in underground and extreme. Bonus on Download and Grammys whinging.Releases:Tarja - Dark ChristmasLonely the Brave - What We Do to FeelHelmet - LeftMTVoid - Matter’s Knot, Pt. 1Gama Bomb - BatsMouthBreather - Self-TapeEx Everything - Slow Change Will Pull Us ApartShylamagoghnar - ConvergenceNight Crowned - TalesVastum - Inward to GethsemaneLeft Cross - Upon Desecrated AltarsAGLO - Build FearSodom - 1982Triumph of Death - Resurrection of the Flesh

Spiritbox release their new Fear of Fear EP, and there are conundrums about the ethics of contriving "viral moments" at shows with Frozen Soul's Magic the Gathering pit and Blink-182 recreating the Denny's hardcore memeReleases:Green Lung - This Heathen LandDying Wish - Symptoms of SurvivalFuming Mouth - Last Day of SunSugar Horse - Truth or Consequence, New MexicoSpiritual Cramp - Spiritual CrampSexless Marriage - This is Not LoveMorne - Engraved With PainAll Get Out - All Get OutSuffocation - Hymns from the ApocryphaKrypta - Outo laaksoMortuary Drape - Black MirrorWatain - Die In Fire - Live In HellStrigoi - Bathed in a Black SunInsomnium - Songs of the DuskSpiritbox - The Fear of Fear

Green Day threaten us with a new album, there's the out of nowhere news of Mike Portnoy's return to Dream Theater, and Mortician become the unlikeliest social media stars of all time. We TOLD you.Releases:Within Temptation - Bleed OutMyrkur - SpineBoys Like Girls - Sunday at FoxwoodsKnuckle Puck - Losing What We LoveGo Ahead and Die - Unhealthy MechanismsCirith Ungol - Dark ParadeSAVAGE - Glory RidersClowns - Endlessawakebutstillinbed - chaos take the wheel and i am a passengerAfterbirth - In But Not OfMarthe - Further In EvilWorm / Dream Unending - StarpathThe Gaslight Anthem - History BooksTaking Back Sunday - 152Wargasm - VenomPoppy - ZigIn This Moment - GodmodeYear of the Knife - No Love LostEND - The Sin of Human FrailtyRile - PessimistNOBRO - Set Your Pussy FreeAutopsy - Ashes, Organs, Blood and CryptsWayfarer - American GothicMalokarpatan - Vertumnus CaesarEndseeker - Global WormingDokken - Heaven Comes DownSorcerer - Reign of the ReaperLegendry - Time Immortal Wept

This month we feast upon the new albums from Creeper, The Menzingers, Blink-182's nostalgic reunion, Svalbard, Kristin Hayter, Primordial, Maggot Heart... and Roger Waters redoing Dark Side of the Moon.Creeper 26:20The Menzingers 1:01:40Blink-182 1:20:43Roger Waters 1:41:29Svalbard 1:58:50Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter 2:16:00Primordial 2:37:29Maggot Heart 3:03:44

Sam catches a double helping of Better Lovers, and Sick New World announces its lineup for 2024.Releases:Creeper - SanguivoreThe Menzingers - Some Of It Was TrueBeartooth - The SurfaceCrosses - Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.Twin Temple - God is DeadÅrabrot - Of Darkness and LightFree Throw - Lessons That We Swear to KeepThe Keening - Little BirdGévaudan - UmbraBody Void - Atrocity MachineSulphur Aeon - Seven Crowns and Seven SealsKrieg - RuinerGruzja - Koniec WakacjiSlidhr - White Hart!Laster - Andermans MijneSadistic Force - Midnight AssassinAcid Blade - Shooting Star

This week we review two new albums from bands who have changed the modern sonic make-up of hardcore in Harm's Way's industrial brutality Common Suffering, and Code Orange's latest (divisive as always) piece of their ongoing conceptual evolution as they go up into The Above.Releases:Svalbard - The Weight of the MaskOf Mice & Men - TetherCapra - ErrorsCarnifex - NecromanteumCitizen - Calling the DogsProng - State of EmergencyHeavy Load - Riders of the Ancient StormBlodet - Death MotherOctober Tide - The Cancer PledgeSpider God - Blackened: Pink

Our September Album Club Pack is a Damnation Fest special as we look at four diverse records from heavy history being showcased at this event: Leprous' prog majesty Coal, Unearth's Oncoming Storm, Deadguy's deranged Fixation on a Coworker, and Akercocke's sexy suit Choronzon.Album Club normally goes up at patreon.com/thatsnotmetal, but teaming up with Damnation Festival, this one's on us straight away. Enjoy!

Some weeks just get overrun by drama: Thy Art is Murder's quite unbelievable decision to replace the vocals on their album in a week has the extended discussion that such a subject warrants, Bloodstock complete their 2023 headliners, and there's an intriguing LiveNation merch cuts scheme. Simmering down, we talk Busted.Releases:Samurai Pizza Cats - You’re HellcomeHeart of a Coward - This Place Brings Only DeathGuilt Trip - Severance3TEETH - EndExKEN Mode - VoidKill Devil Hill - Seas of OblivionPkew Pkew Pkew - Siiick DaysSincere Engineer - Cheap GrillsProfanatica - Crux SimplexFinal Gasp - Mourning MoonSilence in the Snow - Ghost EyesMourning - Hive of ResentmentBlood Command - World DominationCode Orange - The AboveHarm’s Way - Common SufferingKoyo - Would You Miss It?Grove Street - The Path to RighteousnessPrimordial - How It EndsMaggot Heart - HungerBlack Stone Cherry - Screamin’ At the SkySteven Wilson - The Harmony CodexGunship - UnicornKK’s Priest - The Sinner Rides AgainGraveyard - 6Asinhell - Impii HoraNervosa - Jailbreak‘68 - Yes, and…Filth is Eternal - Find OutRuin Lust - DissimulantMoonlight Sorcery - Horned Lord of the Thorned CastleWoe - Legacies of FrailtyIskandr - Spiritus SylvestrisWolves in the Throne Room - Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge

In the busiest month of the year TNM reviews Corey Taylor, Baroness, Sylosis, Blood Command, Kvelertak, Empire State Bastard, Cannibal Corpse, & Hexvessel, toast the achievements of the departing Dawn Ray'd, and ask... WHO did Stef Carpenter tell about the new Deftones album?!Corey Taylor 38:00Baroness 1:06:37Sylosis 1:25:31Blood Command 1:43:35Kvelertak 2:06:11Empire State Bastard 2:21:57Cannibal Corpse 2:37:48Hexvessel 2:55:27

Nickelback and Massacre both draw conversational lines in the sand, and While She Sleeps release a new track that goes full... something.Releases:30 Seconds to Mars - It’s the End of the World But It’s a Beautiful DayCorey Taylor - CMF2Baroness - StoneTesseract - War of BeingAsh - Race the NightDanko Jones - Electric SoundsPain of Truth - Not Through BloodMagnitude - Of Days Renewed…Worriers - Trust Your GutNight Verses - Every Sound Has a Color in the Valley of NightExplosions in the Sky - EndTomb Mold - The Enduring SpiritBrujeria - Esto es BrujeriaGridlink - Coronet JupiterShining - ShiningAlkaloid - NumenFabricant - Drudge to the ThicketAltarage - Worst Case ScenarioBlood Incantation - Luminescent BridgeMayhem - Daemonic Rites