That's Not Metal

Our first TNM reviews of 2025 hit the runway with The Night Flight Orchestra, Wardruna, The Halo Effect, The Great Old Ones, Trauma Bond, & Grief Ritual, and we pay tribute to one of the greatest left-field artists and dreamers of all time David Lynch.The Night Flight Orchestra 45:00Wardruna 1:07:53The Halo Effect 1:28:45The Great Old Ones 1:44:48Trauma Bond 2:00:34Grief Ritual 2:10:30

Album Club returns to start 2024 after a few months away with a bumper episode, setting the record straight on Bring Me the Horizon's Post Human: Survival Horror, destroying orcs with 3 Inches of Blood's Advance and Vanquish, Joyce Manor's micro-classic Never Hungover Again, and Reign Supreme with #WhyNotDyingFetusThis episode was originally published January 2024 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

Hints of a Nine Inch Nails world tour, uncertainty in the SeeYouSpaceCowboy camp, Exodus swap their old singers again, and SpiritWorld go full cowboy.Releases:Eidola - MendGrave Digger - Bone CollectorTokyo Blade - Time is the FireTrauma Bond - Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone.Sarcator - Swarming Angels & FliesNecrodeath - ArimortisNecromaniac - Sciomancy, Malediction & Rites AbominableOnirophagus - Revelations from the VoidHierarchies - HierarchiesDay By Day - Dust and AshesDark Fortress - Anthems From Beyond the Grave - Live In Europe 2023

We're back for 2025 looking to our hopes and goals for the year ahead, announce our first 2025 special, get a first batch of promising to stupid new singles, and yet another reunion.Releases:Patriarkh - Prophet IljaPaleface Swiss - CursedMutagenic Host - The Diseased MachineEthel Cain - PervertsStick to Your Guns - Keep Planting FlowersLambrini Girls - Who Let The Dogs OutTremonti - The End Will Show Us HowThe Halo Effect - March of the UnheardThe Cimmerian - An Age Undreamed OfHaunted Horses - DwellerEx Deo - Year of the Four EmperorsJota - Haven

For our last show before Christmas we arrive at the TNM Awards for 2024, as we gather to end the year with the successes, stories, downfalls and villain arcs that defined the year in heavy: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

We round off the best rock and metal albums of 2024 with lists from Sam and Mark, plus the all important and really incredibly great this year listener poll from all of you to really see who gets crowned.

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 - Man

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 Bereaveme

Autumn releases arrive with the album for the season, a huge return, and several much hyped debuts to assess, from Unto Others, The Black Dahlia Murder, Nightwish, Zetra, Heriot, Vended, Vicious Blade, & The Jesus Lizard.Unto Others 21:45The Black Dahlia Murder 57:55Nightwish 1:19:30Zetra 1:37:58Heriot 1:52:42Vended 2:08:41Vicious Blade 2:27:34The Jesus Lizard 2:38:44

Album Club is back with Slayer's sunset on their imperial era Seasons in the Abyss, My Bloody Valentine's shoegaze starting gun Loveless, a comprehensive look back on the divisive effect of Cancer Bats' Searching for Zero, and Blood Incantation's Starspawn blasting death metal through the stargate.This episode was originally published July 2023 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

Another UK live event hits with Cosmic Void Festival and Cirith Ungol's UK date on their final tour, Iron Maiden announce their huge 50th anniversary tour, The Cure start to finally tease new music, and there's the unfortunate Jane's Addiction punch-up implosion to deal with.Releases:Nightwish - YesterwyndeUnto Others - Never, NeverlandVended - VendedCrimson Veil - HexCharlotte Wessels - The ObsessionKublai Khan TX - Exhibition of ProwessRegional Justice Center - Freedom Sweet FreedomGiant Walker - SilhouettesAlunah - Fever DreamDemon Head - Through Holes Shine the StarsDungeon Crawl - Maze ControllerGlacial Tomb - Lightless ExpanseCoffin Rot - Dreams of the DisturbedKanonenfieber - Die UrkatastropheMork - SyvDreamless Veil - Every Limb of the FloodEsoctrilihum - Döth-DerniàlhDeathless Void - The Voluptuous Fire of Sin

We take a trip to No Play Festival to see SeeYouSpaceCowboy and a day of UK hardcore bands, and follow up on last week's Linkin Park announcement with, well... all of that. Not the conversation we imagined having last time.Releases:Pyrrhon - ExhaustMan’s Gin - The ReprobateThe Jesus Lizard - RackCursive - DevourerNada Surf - Moon MirrorChastity - ChastityZetra - ZetraOceans of Slumber - Where Gods Fear to SpeakSatan - Songs In CrimsonWolfbrigade - Life Knife DeathSlomosa - Tundra RockTorus - TorusDale Crover - GlossolaliaWinterfylleth - The Imperious HorizonTrelldom - …by the Shadows…Taur-im-Duinath - Verso casaNightWraith - Divergence