That's Not Metal

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)

A bumper Album Club dissection as Mötley Crüe go horribly wrong on Generation Swine. Crossfaith's electronicore captures a moment on Zion, Have Heart's melodic hardcore landmark Songs to Scream at the Sun, and Suffocation invent/perfect brutal death metal with Effigy of the Forgotten. Brandon. We love you.This episode was originally published May 2024 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

Sam is lured back to the UK's pop punk home for Slam Dunk 2025 and has to think long and hard about Electric Callboy, and we doff our caps to Svalbard's decision to drop the curtain on a decade plus career as one of the UK's favourite heavy bands.Releases:Skunk Anansie - The Painful TruthMidnight - Steel, Rust and DisgustThus Spoke Zarathustra - I’m Done With Self Care, It’s Time for Others’ HarmHome Is Where - Hunting SeasonWitchcraft - IdagWitchrot - Soul CellarYear of No Light - Les Maitres FousHellcrash - Inferno CrematorioSexmag - SexorczymChepang - JhyappaOssuary - Abhorrent Worship…And Oceans - The Regeneration ItineraryMagus Lord - In the Company of ChampionsHouse of Protection - Outrun You AllMSPAINT - No SeparationCrowquill - CrowquillSwans - BirthingGarbage - Let All That We Imagine Be the LightStray from the Path - ClockworkedDesolated - Finding PeaceThe Haunted - Songs of Last ResortRivers of Nihil - Rivers of NihilVildhjarta - Där skogen sjunger under evighetens granarKUSANAGI - ParamnesiaPlanning for Burial - It’s Closeness, It’s EasyCwfen - SorrowsGrin - Acid GodsColtsblood - Obscured Into Nebulous DuskTrivax - The Great SatanSvartsyn - Vortex of the DestroyerObsidian Tongue - Eclipsing Worlds of ScornLord Vigo - Walk the ShadowsVader - HumanihilityWormrot - TNT

In a month that saw two no. 1 metal albums, we go through 2025's biggest reviews gauntlet with Ghost, Machine Head, Behemoth, PUP, The Callous Daoboys, Model/Actriz, Age of Apocalypse, & Sijjin.Ghost 30:52Machine Head 1:17:32Behemoth 1:42:36PUP 2:06:43The Callous Daoboys 2:21:42Model/Actriz 2:47:50Age of Apocalypse 3:00:55Sijjin 3:14:07

We rummage through the wreckage as Trivium and Bullet for My Valentine's Poisoned Ascendancy tour comes to a sudden stop with fingers generally being pointed at one party, and we ask big questions like: are four-sided longsleeves good?Releases:Bury Tomorrow - Will You Haunt Me, With That Same PatienceCallous Daoboys - I Don’t Want to See You in HeavenNovelists - CodaPridian - Venetian DarkHundredth - Faded SplendorArm’s Length - There’s a Whole World Out ThereDeath Before Dishonor - Nowhere BoundPelican - Flickering ResonanceSteve von Till - Alone in a World of WoundsOndfødt - DimsvallBlood Monolith - The Calling of FireAntropomorphia - Devoid of LightCadaver Shrine - Into the Horrible DepthsDrouth - The Teeth of TimeFull of Hell - Broken Sword, Rotten ShieldYouth Code - Yours, With Malice

TNM's 2025 festival summer begins with Incineration descending upon Camden for extreme metal sets from the likes of Lamp of Murmuur, Blackbraid, Spectral Wound, Blood Incantation debuting Absolute Elsewhere in the UK, & a mountain-moving Celtic Frost performance by Triptykon. Ough.Releases:Sijjin - Helljjin CombatPUP - Who Will Look After The Dogs?Propagandhi - At PeacePress Club - To All The Ones That I LoveBleed - BleedModel/Actriz - PirouetteKnives - GlitterYour Spirit Dies - My Gnawing Pains Will Never RestParadise Slaves - With Hell In His EyesSlung - In WavesSnooze - I Know How You Will DieShearling - Motherfucker, I am Both: “Amen” and “Hallelujah”...Dispyt - Från Melankoli till MeningslöshetHate - Bellum RegiisFroglord - MetamorphosisSleep Token - Even In ArcadiaBehemoth - The Shit ov GodTetrarch - The Ugly Side of MeMcClusky - The World is Still Here and So Are WePeter Murphy - Silver ShadeDeath SS - The EntityGhost Bath - Rose Thorn NecklaceSvarta Havet - Månen ska lysa din vägJade - Mysteries of a Flowery DreamCandlemass - Black StarHarms Way - Other World

On the single biggest release week of the year we head down to Ghost kicking off the Skeletour here in the UK, Charli XCX officially declares it a Turnstile Summer, the original Alice Cooper band reunites after 52 years, and there's important updates about last week's Weezer movie announcement.Releases:Superheaven - SuperheavenMelvins - ThunderballLik - NecroAncient Death - Ego DissolutionTribunal - In Penitence and RuinHeaven’s Gate - Tales from a Blistering ParadiseZeicrydeus - La Grande HeresieUngraven - Hollows Made Homes In Their Sunken CheeksXweaponX - Weapon X Demo 2Employed to Serve - Fallen StarInhuman Nature - Greater Than DeathGhost - SkeletáMachine Head - UnatonedLandmvrks - The Darkest Place I’ve Ever BeenCaliban - Back From HellWednesday 13 - Mid Death CrisisH.E.A.T. - Welcome to the FutureHeart Attack Man - Joyride the Pale HorseEluveitie - AnvPagan Altar - Never Quite DeadConan - Violence DimensionSumac / Moor Mother - The FilmBRUIT < - The Age of EphemeralityCancer - Inverted WorldCaustic Wound - Grinding Mechanism of TormentKardashev - AluneaPhantom - Tyrants of WrathVenator - PsychodromeHyena - About Rock and RollBig Boy - Love SongsProfanatica - Wreathed In Dead AngelsDavid Eugene Edwards & Al Cisneros - Pillar of Fire/CapernaumCirith Ungol - Live at the Roxy