That's Not Metal

On top of a stream of new music from across the heavy spectrum, we weigh in on the debate following End It's targeting of the man in a banana costume at their show, why the frustration and resentment towards meme behaviour and influencer culture exists at subcultural events, and whether this particular incident went too far.Releases:Sublime - Until the Sun ExplodesSleeping With Sirens - An Ending In ItselfPussy Riot - CYKAYes - AuroraTarja - Frisson NoirSwiss Army Wife - I Love You, But I Hate It HereKhemmis - KhemmisJoseph Tholl - It Might Be ArtNuclear Tomb - Epoch InhumaneGenghis Tron - Signal FireMONO - SnowdropBIG|BRAVE - In Grief or In HopeFleshcrawl - Epitome of CarnageFires in the Distance - Circadian PromiseDefiled - Altered StateStormkeep - The Nocturnes of IswylmVéhémence - Assiéges pour l’éternitéFyrnask - ÍosirIron Reagan - DemonetizationDevourment - Pious ImpietyStill Remains - Spirit BreakerMystifier / Craven Idol - Demystification of the Fallen Souls

Fortress Festival returns bringing worldwide black metal exclusives to the British seaside, with Gallowbraid, Old Man's Child, Dødheimsgard, Misþyrming, A Forest of Stars & more darkening the skies over the 2026 bill.Releases:Devin Townsend - The MothTurnover - Down on EarthStatic Dress - Injury EpisodeSparta - Cut a Silhouette‘68 - They Are SurvivedHealing Wound - Bodies of Heavenly ViolenceDeafkids - Cicatrizes do FuturoAll Them Witches - House of MirrorsElder - Through ZeroMonolord - NeverendingGodthrymm - ProjectionsFunebrarum - Beckoning the Void of Eternal SilenceTyrann - Tyrann ForeverTrelldom - …by the Word…Hecate Enthroned - The Corpse of a Titan, a Lament Long BuriedConverge - Hum of HurtEvanescence - SanctuaryDeath Cab for Cutie - I Built You a Tower100 Demons - Embrace the Black LightGuilt Trip - Armour of AngelsAugust Burns Red - Season of SurrenderBlood Incantation - All Gates Open (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)A.A. Williams - SolsticeSlift - FantasiaEvergrey - Architects of a New Weav

It's all about vaporwave prog, French oi, and choo choo train black metal as a whip round the underground picks up Basement, Frozen Soul, Haggard Cat, Fire-Toolz, Prisonnier du temps, A Forest of Stars, Panopticon, and Scimitar for the month's most blistering records.Basement 15:40Frozen Soul 33:44Haggard Cat 51:10Fire-Toolz 1:05:09Prisonnier du temps 1:15:41A Forest of Stars 1:25:27Panopticon 1:47:30Scimitar 2:02:45

Anthrax's first single in ten years leads us to consider the thrash legends' creative relevancy in 2026, and Avenged Sevenfold going fully indepedent by buying back their rights brings reminiscing on ten years of their album The Stage.Releases:Marmozets - CO.WAR.DICE.A - ProngDimmu Borgir - Grand Serpent RisingXCOMM - Time to BurnArmored Saint - Emotion Factory ResetDavid Eugene Edwards - Mercurial SilenceBlindead 23 - DeuteriumWitching Hour - Descending.. Where Time Has Ceased to ExistLore - Psychotic Trance of the Black NightsGridiron - Lights OutBear - Anhedonia

Iron Maiden's brand new documentary Burning Ambition hits cinema screens, and there's new singles from Green Lung announcing their new album Necropolitan and from brat superstar Charli XCX making ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ck music.Releases:Periphery - A Pale White DotThe All-American Rejects - SandboxSuper Sometimes - Show the World What’s UnderneathHeld. - GreyVon Groove - Born to RockPro-Pain - Stone Cold AngerAcid Reign - Daze of the WeekJungle Rot - Cruel Face of WarNedgravd - AscensionAkem Manah - ThrenodiesTyrannus - Mournhold

This week we make our way back to Incineration to once again kick off the festival season with a scorching of black and death metal as the likes of Dragged Into Sunlight, Of Feather and Bone, Tomb Mold and Scimitar rip it up across London stages.Releases:Black Veil Brides - VindicateBasement - WIREDKoyo - Barely HereSocial Distortion - Born to KillThe Flatliners - Cold WorldHaggard Cat - The Pain That Orbits LifeGeoff Tate - Operation: Mindcrime IIIFrozen Soul - No Place of WarmthIngested- DenigrationDarkthrone - Pre-Historic MetalPanopticon - Det hjemsøkte hjertetYoth Iria - Gone with the DevilA Forest of Stars - Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile InterfaceDraconian - In Somnolent RuinForced Order - Undying SpiritCrowquill - Erase The FileScarab - Transmutation of FateGadget - Coerced

Creeper's vampire extravaganza Sangui-Tour hits small venues in the UK for a full celebration of blooddrinking and leather.Releases:Foo Fighters - Your Favorite ToyThe Amity Affliction - House of CardsAtreyu - The End is Not the EndFailure - Location LostTerror - Still SufferRoman Candle - UnadulteratedArmed for Apocalypse - The Earth is Breathing Beneath MePlini - An Unnameable DesireEinar Solberg - Vox OccultaAdmiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell - The Trouble With the ShovellDemon Spell - Blessed Be the DarkSix Feet Under - Next to DieScimitar - Scimitarium IICnoc An Tursa - A Cry for the SlainBlood Countess - Imperatrix SanguinisSepultura - The Cloud of UnknowingVomit Forth - In the Name of the FatherAmerican Football - American Football (LP4)Kneecap - FenianSevendust - OneCage Fight - ExuviaVenom - Into OblivionSpell - Wretched HeartBlack Cilice - Votive FireEffluence - Anticholinergic DerangementInfected Death - Invicta

Viral microtonal aliens, surprise drops, and defiant, powerful final bows rule the month with At the Gates, Enter Shikari, Corrosion of Conformity, Spirit Adrift, Angine de Poitrine, Portrayal of Guilt, Poison Ruïn, and Immolation. One last time: Go!At the Gates 18:20Enter Shikari 49:18Corrosion of Conformity 1:18:23Spirit Adrift 1:33:43Angine de Poitrine 1:49:00Portrayal of Guilt 2:14:02Poison Ruïn 2:30:48Immolation 2:51:47

We launch the polaris and get into one of our giddiest ever album clubs on Megadeth's delirious Rust In Peace, the suffocating global anger of Killing Joke 2003, the launchpad for second wave emo in Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary, and Gorguts returning to once again up the game for avant-garde death metal with Colored Sands.This episode was originally published April 2025 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

Bring Me the Horizon make the genuinely absurd announcement of Count Your Blessings 20th anniversary celebrations, Nine Inch Noize owns Coachella, and Evanescence lead the singles in their team-up with the Fish.Releases:Nine Inch Noize - Nine Inch NoizeSkindred - You Got This.gif from god - DissimulationThe Last Ten Seconds of Life - The Dead OnesPrince Daddy & the Hyena - Hotwire Trip SwitchHold My Own - Pay No MindMat McNerney - The Bones of the Dead, or Three Turns CounterclockwiseCrippled Black Phoenix - SceaduhelmLeila Abdul-Rauf - Andros InsidiumOrdh - Blind In Abyssal RealmsReeking Aura - On the Promise of the MoonPissrot - Absolute FormMuerto - Eclipsed RealmsNekrogoblikon - The Boiling SeaGout - Actual Bastard

Tracks from Warning, Holding Absence, Health and more head up the week's music, and we announce our first massive band special for 2026.Releases:Bilmuri - Kinda HardLord of the Lost - Opvs Noir Vol. 3Truckfighters - MasterflowAs Everything Unfolds - DID YOU ASK TO BE SET FREE?Tigercub - Nets to Catch the WaveLove Rarely - Pain TravelsBodysnatcher - Hell is Here, Hell is HomeMetal Church - Dead to RightsSpirit Adrift - Infinite IlluminationThe Melvins with Napalm Death - Savage Imperial Death MarchImmolation - DescentArchspire - Too Fast to DieVomitory - Death ThroesUada - InterwovenBlush Puppy - Here You DreamMelechesh - Sentinels of ShamashCissné - Awake Children Under the MoonJK Flesh / Monrella - Shouting the Odds

A lot of heavy feelings this week sadly, with the losses of Bo Lueders, James Lollar of Gost, and Ross the Boss. Elsewhere the Kreator/Carcass/Exodus/Nails package lights up the UK, Damnation 2026 unveil all their headliners, Converge unveil a second album, and another messed up story comes out of the world of hardcore so... yeah, one of those weeks.Releases:Don Broco - Nightmare TrippingBlack Label Society - Engines of DemolitionMyrath - Wilderness of MirrorsMoodring - death fetishChamber - this is goodbye…A Winter’s Remorse - The Day Our Gods Abandoned UsConcealer - This Room Could Be HeavenDivine Chaos - Hate ReactorZerre - Rotting on a Golden ThroneThe Twilight Sad - It’s the Long GoodbyeTigers Jaw - Lost on YouFree Throw - Moments Before the WindWinterfylleth - The Unyielding SeasonKëkht Aräkh - Morning StarCruel Force - HanedaCryptworm - Infectious Pathological WasteGrowth - Under the UnderEnslaved & Storm Weather Shanty Choir - Enslaved & Storm Weather Shanty ChoirCorrosion of Conformity - Good

TNM March reviews bag just catches the most brain-breaking, beautiful return as Neurosis emerge with a whole new album, alongside another return from Poison the Well, Lamb of God, Gaerea, Hellripper, Aggressive Perfector, Mallavora, & Sweet Pill.Neurosis 11:30Poison the Well 56:10Lamb of God 1:17:13Gaerea 1:39:08Hellripper 1:59:30Aggressive Perfector 2:15:00Mallavora 2:25:00Sweet Pill 2:31:51

Muse beam back down to us with their new album announcement, along with music from Black Veil Brides, Stormkeep, and Dropkick Murphys/Haywire, there's a live report from deathcore central with Bodysnatcher, Ingested, Psycho-Frame and Big Ass Truck, and we pay tribute to Motörhead's second-longest serving member Phil Campbell.Releases:Poison the Well - Peace In PlaceExodus - GoliathGaerea - LossFilth is Eternal - Impossible WorldGladie - No Need to Be LonelyStainless - Lady of Lust and SteelEgregore - It Echoes in the WildThe Silver - Looking Glass Hymnal BlueGutvoid - Liminal ShrinesMclusky - I Sure Am Getting Sick of this Bowling AlleyAnnul Noir - InexistenceDropkick Murphys / Haywire - New England Forever

A curtain of biblical darkness falls upon Album Club in the unofficial Sabbath album The Devil You Know by Heaven & Hell, 16 Horsepower's dark country classic Sackcloth 'n' Ashes, Cave In's space rock leap Jupiter, and metalcore pioneers Integrity making their most no fucks given record Howling, for the Nightmare Shall Consume.This episode was originally published March 2025 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

New singles from the likes of Gouge Away, Drug Church, and Devin Townsend hit our ears, epic metal heroes Eternal Champion surprise drop a bold and ambitious new EP, and there's hardcore drama cause when is there not?Releases:Lamb of God - Into OblivionAngus McSix - Angus McSix and the All-Seeing Astral EyeSweet Pill - Still There’s a GlowShoreline - Is This the Low Point or the Moment After?UnityTX - Somewhere, In BetweenGong - Bright SpiritMonstrosity - Screams from Beneath the SurfaceNo/Más - No PeaceWolfbastard - Satanic Scum PunksTransilvania - Magic PosthumaWitchcraft - A Sinner’s ChildEternal Champion - Friend of War

Basement, Blackbraid, and Portrayal of Guilt give us a diverse pack of new songs to chew in, questions on what is the greatest musical city and generationally phased out songs, and we respond to the news that industrial giants Godflesh are hanging up their live instruments for good.Releases:Rob Zombie - The Great SatanCarpenter Brut - Leather TempleThe Gloom in the Corner - Royal DiscordanceNothing - A Short History of DecayFinal Gasp - New Day SymptomsMatador - Above, Below and SoHarrowed - The Eternal HungerPossession - The Mother of DarknessNecrofier - Transcend Into OblivionErra - silence outlives the earthLost Society - Hell is a State of MindWhiplash - ThrashquakeSurfbort - Reality StarTemple of Void - The CrawlBosse-de-Nage - Hidden Fires Burn HottestVreid - The Skies Turn BlackBlackbraid - Nocturnal WombBlack Stone Cherry - CelebrateMoon Tooth - BastardNailed Shut MA - A Promise Made, A Promise Kept

This month brings us one of the most daunting, monolithic, and outlandish reviews bags we've ever had, as we tackle Converge, Sylosis, Mayhem, Worm, Pony, Cryptic Shift, Hällas, and Killing Pace. Slap on your spacesuit, we're adventure rocking.Converge 27:36Sylosis 56:02Mayhem 1:12:56Worm 1:30:33Pony 1:43:00Cryptic Shift 1:52:40Hällas 2:12:10Killing Pace 2:30:20

Party time at TNM: the mythical drought comes to an end, alongside new tracks from the Foo Fighters and Don Broco/Nickelback and grand line-up unveilings from Arch Enemy and Nevermore.Releases:Sylosis - The New FleshNew Found Glory - Listen Up!Killing Pace - HCPMExhumed - Red AsphaltCoscradh - Carving the Causeway to the OtherworldThe Magus - DaemonosophiaLead Injector - Witching Attack

Hyperblasts is back to cover what we missed from the Grammys, UK live shows from Home Front to Korpiklaani, Knocked Loose and Denzel Curry's collab single, and the discussion around While She Sleeps' video announcement for their stepping back from touring.Releases:Hällas - PanoramaSoftcult - When a Flower Doesn’t GrowKarnivool - In VesesPuscifer - Normal Isn’tTailgunner - Midnight BlitzTumour - Human SalvageUncultivates - This Will Become Clear Later, Like the French RevolutionMayhem - Liturgy of DeathNight of the Vampire - The Enchanting Winds of the Dreamweaving MasqueradeKanonenfieber - SoldatenschicksalePower Snatch - EP1Afraid to Die - Hell is a Place In My MindPredatory Void - Atoned In MetamorphosisInfinite Misery - Altar of Extracted TeethConverge - Love is Not EnoughTX2 - End of UsAngel Du$t - COLD 2 THE TOUCHMariachi El Bronx - Mariachi El Bronx IVPony - Clearly CursedYakkie - Kill The Cop Inside Your HeadWorm - NecropalaceFossilization - Advent of WoundsGuilt Trip - God Forgives