That's Not Metal

The That's Not Metal Albums of the Year for 2024 begins, with Perran and Elliot giving their lists of so much that the best in metal, the underground and beyond had to offer.

Our final reviews bag of 2024 happens to feature the biggest rock comebacks of the year and underground heroes, with Linkin Park, The Cure, Opeth, Better Lovers, Many Eyes, Tribulation & Neon Nightmare getting discussed.Linkin Park 31:45The Cure 1:01:04Opeth 1:25:59Better Lovers 1:49:56Many Eyes 2:09:03Tribulation 2:20:08Neon Nightmare 2:41:53

2025 singles really start coming with Spiritbox, Architects, Killswitch Engage, Machine Head, and Coheed and Cambria, W.A.S.P. go full mental, and we talk the "bad" albums we got into bands on.Releases:Opeth - The Last Will and TestamentBody Count - MercilessKim Deal - Nobody Loves You MoreOcean Grove - OddworldPolar - NovaFellowship - The Skies Above EternityCoilguns - Odd LoveMúr - MúrDefeated Sanity - Chronicles of LunacyGutless - High Impact ViolenceAnte-Inferno - Death’s SoliloquyPanzerfaust - The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow ZionKruelty - Profane UsurpationMallavora - EchoesDoro - Rock ‘N’ Roll Xmas Party

We hit that point of the year where we have Grammy nominations and Download headliners to either complain about or debunk complaints about, and a mega live review as Sepultura's farewell tour finally arrives on UK shores.Releases:Linkin Park - From ZeroAs I Lay Dying - Through Storms AheadPoppy - Negative SpacesFull of Hell / Andrew Nolan - Scraping the DivinePrimal Code - Opaque FixationThy Catafalque - XII: A Gyönyörü Álmok Ezután JönnekSpider God - Possess the DevilChelsea Wolfe - UnboundLess Than Jake - UnchartedMammoth Grinder - Undying Spectral ResonanceDeadbody / Tribal Gaze - Deadbody / Tribal GazeRefused - The Shape of Punk to Come Obliterated

We once again convene for a review of the UK’s biggest underground event at Damnation Festival and witness legendary returns from Dragged Into Sunlight, Nails, Cradle of Filth, Bleeding Through, Inter Arma, and so many other TNM faves absolutely tearing it up.Elliot's audio is beaming in through the internet on this one, but we'll be back sounding proper soon.Releases:Make Them Suffer - Make Them SufferSólstafir - Hin helga kvolState Champs - State ChampsThe Arrival Note - …Home is So Far From HereThe Body - The Crying Out of ThingsThank - I Have A Physical Body That Can Be HarmedKlone - The UnseenMassacre - NecrolutionYoth Iria - Blazing InfernoPaysage d’Hiver - Die BergeCounterparts - Heaven Let Them Die

We convene on Halloween night to talk yet more big reunions at big American rock festivals, the news that Ithaca are calling it a day, and give the definitive answer on whether bands wearing their own shirts is cool or not and whether we're too focused on the size of bands in appreciating their art.Releases:Jerry Cantrell - I Want BloodJapandroids - Fate & AlcoholPinhead Gunpowder - UntGrand Magus - SunravenEnsiferum - Winter StormSwallow the Sun - ShiningHarvestman - Triptych: Part ThreeSerpent Column - Tassel of AresBetter Lovers - Highly IrresponsibleDevin Townsend - PowerNerdPixies - The Night the Zombies CameKids In Glass Houses - Pigs In Glass HousesAmyl and the Sniffers - Cartoon DarknessMeryl Streek - Songs for the DeceasedPom Pom Squad - Mirror Starts Moving Without MeFit for an Autopsy - The Nothing That IsPøltergeist - NachtmusikButcher - On Fowl of Tyrant WingGaerea - ComaSchammasch - The Maldoror Chants: Old OceanBlack Curse - Burning In Celestial PoisonLiving Gate - Suffer As OneBunuel - MansuetudeBehemoth - XXX Years Ov BlasphemyEnforced - A Leap Into the DarkPest Control - Year of the PestFifteen Rhema - Drawing Upon Lost TimeA Year Ago Today - A Year Ago TodayThe Cure - Songs of a Lost WorldCane Hill - a piece of me i never let you findPlanes Mistaken for Stars - Do You Still Love Me?Thirdface - Ministerial CafeteriaTribulation - Sub Rosa In AeternumNeon Nightmare - Faded DreamBombus - Your BloodNachtmystium - Blight PrivilegeNew Skeletal Faces - Until the NightMitochondrion - Vitriseptome

We face some of our toughest Album Club challenges yet: Matchbox 20's Ken anthems Yourself or Someone Like You, ponder how Attila's About That Life achieved some kind of longevity, cheer originality in hardcore on Twitching Tongues' In Love There is No Law, and the troubling eternal mystique of Acid Bath's When the Kite String Pops.This episode was originally published July 2023 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

We convene for conversations on 2024's most monolithic potential landmark records, reviewing Blood Incantation, Undeath, Balance and Composure, High Vis, Touché Amoré, Oranssi Pazuzu, and Chat Pile, as well as scratching our heads at festival clues and Acid Bath(?!), and a toast to the late Paul Di'Anno.Blood Incantation 45:58Undeath 1:22:56Balance and Composure 1:45:20High Vis 2:00:55Touché Amoré 2:19:41Oranssi Pazuzu 2:42:46Chat Pile 3:09:54

On this Album Club episode we return to the scene of the crime to again preview some of the must-see sets at this year's Damnation Festival: Cradle of Filth's old school origins with The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, Ne Obliviscaris' Citadel, Discharge's Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing, and Dragged Into Sunlight's terrifying Hatred for Mankind.

We've got a big catch-up chat talking about Sam's trip to a Tokyo hardcore show, tours from Orange Goblin, Cannibal Corpse, and Frank Carter fronting the Sex Pistols, leading into a discussion of the surprising news around The Rattlesnakes calling a hiatus and their potential future, and questions around nostalgia festival booking double standards and which band we'd want to see "do a Wintersun".Releases:High Parasite - Forever We BurnWeather Systems - Ocean Without a ShoreOrigami Angel - Feeling Not FoundAdorior - Bleed On My TeethSpite - The Third TempleBlood Incantation - Absolute ElsewhereUndeath - More InsaneFever 333 - Darker WhiteTrash Boat - Heaven Can WaitBalance and Composure - With You In SpiritDrug Church - PrudeChubby and the Gang - And Then There Was…Godspeed You! Black Emperor - No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead1349 - The Wolf and the KingLowen - Do Not Go to War With the Demons of MazandaranCosmic Putrefaction - Emerald Fires Atop the Farewell MountainsMaul - In the Jaws of BereavementMotley Crue - CancelledSylosis - The PathThe Offspring - SuperchargedMyles Kennedy - The Art of Letting GoReal Friends - Blue HourTouche Amoré - Spiral in a Straight LineEnvy - EunoiaThe Linda Lindas - No ObligationChat Pile - Cool WorldOranssi Pazuzu - MuuntautujaDoedsmaghird - Omniverse ConsciousnessThe Crown - Crown of ThornsVomit Forth - Terrified of GodDe Mannen Broeders - Sober Maal