That's Not Metal

TNM returns to a monster edition of Bloodstock Festival where Trivium, Machine Head, Gojira, Mastodon, Emperor, Nailbomb, Ministry, & more bring heavy metal to the fields of England once again.

There's gothy new AFI and even more dramatically new Davey Havok facial hair as we wonder who is really under there, and pay our respects to the sadly passed Erik Wunder behind the revolutionary USBM outlaws Cobalt.Releases:Babymetal - Metal ForthHalestorm - EverestGood Charlotte - Motel Du CapLord of the Lost - Opvs Noir Vol. 1As December Falls - Everything’s On Fire But I’m FineFirstborne - LuckyAttack Attack! - Attack Attack! IIBlackbraid - Blackbraid IIISinsaenum - In DevastationAsunojokei - Think of YouMalthusian - The Summoning BellCrypt Sermon - Saturnian ApprenticesAversions Crown - A Voice From the Outer Dark

Musical drum stools strikes again, Dying Wish and Fleshwater set new records for the autumn, and the Poisoned Ascendancy shadiness raises its sassy head once again.Releases:Alice Cooper - The Revenge of Alice CooperPost Animal - IronScalp - Not Worthy of Human CompassionKontusion - Insatiable Lust for DeathNuovo Testamento - TroubleFit for a King - Lonely GodThe Armed - The Future is Here and Everything Needs to Be DestroyedFox Lake - New World HeatHammer - TrappedHedonist - ScapulimancyKayo Dot - Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under ReasonCar Bomb - Tiles Whisper DreamsSaphir Levi - Follow Your Shadow

We shake up the reviews with looks at plenty of smaller newcomer bands with TNM fave The Dirty Nil plus Blood Vulture, Psycho-Frame, Blind Equation, Crown of Anguish, Stangarigel, & Nuvolascura, and of course we do our best this week to speak to the seismic passing of the Prince of Darkness, heavy metal's hugest figure, Ozzy Osbourne.The Dirty Nil 46:49Blood Vulture 1:04:23Psycho-Frame 1:20:14Blind Equation 1:32:06Crown of Anguish 1:45:16Stangarigel 1:55:58Nuvolascura 2:05:20

TNM makes a long overdue return to 2000 Trees Festival to see Alexisonfire, Coheed and Cambria, the return of letlive., a massively contested slot from Kneecap, plenty more from punk rock spectrum, and in the same episode somehow, we face the great Profanatica jar controversy.Releases:Bring Me the Horizon - Lo-filesDaron Malakian and Scars On Broadway - Addicted to the ViolenceBush - I Beat LonelinessZac Farro - OperatorLaura Jane Grace In The Trauma Tropes - Adventure ClubPanic Shack - Panic ShackBlind Equation - A Funeral In PurgatoryStomach - Low DemonBa’al - The Fine Line Between Heaven and HereEntrails - Grip of Ancient EvilAbigail Williams - A Void Within ExistenceHaunter / Cape of Bats - Black Magick Metal Punk

The biggest metal weekend of all time maybe arrives, with our impressions of Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning and Ozzy's retirement party, plus trips to the return of Slayer in the UK.Releases:Split Chain - motionblurCalva Louise - Edge of the Abyssdead7 - Love What You Can While You’ve Still Got Something Left to LoveWard XVI - ID3NTITYBorn of Osiris - Through ShadowsMargarita Witch Cult - Strung Out In HellFloating - Hesitating Lights

It's a rock show extravaganza as we chat about one of the highest profile weeks for live heavy music in the UK ever with Deftones, Linkin Park, King Diamond, and Iron Maiden, as well as a sobering discussion of the fallout of Bob Vylan's appearance at Glastonbury and removal from Radar Festival.Releases:Higher Power - There’s Love In This World If You Want ItPig Pen - Mental MadnessDropkick Murphys - For the PeopleWytch Hazel - V: LamentationsWe Lost the Sea - A Single FlowerStygian - DreadlandsGaupa - Fyr

Outbreak returns in 2025 in a different guise, with a new site in London for a different kind of mass hardcore experience with sets from Turnstile, Sunny Day Real Estate, Speed, Model/Actriz, plus bonus appearances from Deafheaven and God's Hate.Releases:Cryptopsy - An Insatiable ViolenceHelms Deep - Chasing the DragonHaggus - Destination ExtinctionWitherer - Shadow Without a HorizonUpon Stone - End Time LightningValdrin - Apex ViolatorDeadguy - Near-Death Travel ServicesHeaven Shall Burn - HeimatSodom - The ArsonistBlood Vulture - Die CloseJohan Langquist - The Castle - Johan Langquist - The CastleKing Witch - IIIFer de Lance - Fires on the MountainsideKilling of a Sacred Deer - A Visage of a Mangled BodyGreet Death - Die In LoveAll Men Unto Me - RequiemInhuman Condition - Mind TrapLord Belial - Unholy TrinityShining - Divided You’ll Stand and United You’ll FallCosmic Joke - Forced PerspectiveBotch - 061524Bruce Springsteen - Tracks II: The Lost Albums

A glut of huge hardcore storms TNM reviews with albums from Turnstile, Malevolence, Stray from the Path, Kaonashi, Deadguy (& Hexvessel, not very hardcore), and Nine Inch Nails kick off their incredible Peel It Back arena production.Turnstile 34:18Malevolence 1:18:45Stray from the Path 1:39:00Kaonashi 1:57:44Deadguy 2:18:16Hexvessel 2:35:50

TNM returns from a week off with a cross continent double fest report as we hit up Yorkshire's Fortress and Poland's Mystic Festival, seeing every band under the sun from Agalloch to Ulcerate, W.A.S.P. to King Diamond, Bullet to Beherit.Releases:Turnstile - Never EnoughVolbeat - God of Angels TrustKaonashi - I Want to Go HomeOrthodox - A Door Left OpenView From the Soyuz - UbiquitousKatatonia - Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking StateKing Parrot - A Young Persons Guide ToGruesome - Silent EchoesGaahl’s Wyrd - Braiding the StoriesAutumn Nostalgie - MetanoiaAustere - The Stillness of DissolutionDimscûa - Dust EaterBuckcherry - Roar Like ThunderFallujah - XenotaphHexvessel - NocturneDolven - In My Grave…Silenceletlive. - The Blackest Beautiful RevisitedSigh - I Saw the World’s End - Hangman’s Hymn MMXXVThe Cure - Mixes of a Lost WorldQueens of the Stone Age - Alive in the CatacombsMetallica - Load (Remastered)