That's Not Metal

It's real highs and lows in the news for rock music this week, with incredibly exciting reveals from Disfear and Repugnant, the 2027 line-up announcements from Slam Dunk and ArcTanGent, but also the news of Enter Shikari's incoming hiatus and the mountain-moving loss of Venom's Cronos, the forefather of extreme metal without whom our world is unthinkable.

Releases:
Amon Amarth - The Allfather Awakens
Twin Atlantic - Separation from the Animals
Imminence - Axis Mundi
Escape the Fate - The Last Goodbye
Miss May I - No Place for Me
To the Grave - LIBERATION FRONT
Haywire 617 - I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye
Cyadine - Violence In Measure
Bobbie Dazzle - Star Power
Haunt - Setting Course
Asomvel - Set Your World On Fire
Hippotraktor - Annihilist
Dissimulator - Artifice Dissolves
Deconsekrated - The Inexorable Transcendence of Death
Spirit Possession - Cathedral Speech
Xasthur - Open to Misinterpretation
From First to Last - We Were Bleeding Anyway
The Crawling - What We Leave Behind
Swans - Newly Sentient Being

There are surprising pivots towards our world from the pop sphere this time from Miley Cyrus and Chvrches alongside new singles from Bullet for My Valentine & several others, live trips to see Electric Wizard & more, there's a mindblowing milestone for Judas Priest's Ian Hill, a bizarre multi-pronged bust-up with Frankie Palmeri at the centre, and sadly another passing of a punk and hardcore legend with the loss of New Found Glory's Chad Gilbert.

Releases:
Holding Absence - Modern Life is Lonely
Emma Ruth Rundle - These Killing Times
Boy Harsher - Get Mean
The Eternal - Obscured Horizons
Remote Viewing - State Violence
Early Moods - Ready for the Grave
Krallice - Scour Order
Runemagick - After Chaos: Nocturnal Vigil
CH’AHOM - Anthropic Rites of Sublimation
Combust / Blow Your Brains Out / Imposter - United Nations
Tom Morello - Everyone Gets Everything They Want
Coldrain - OPTIMIZE = OPTDEMIZE
Europe - Come This Madness
Keo - Put a Smile On For Me
Pain of Truth - Pain of Truth
Split Dogs - Nice N’ Rough
Burner - No One is Coming to Save Us
Cloven Hoof - Never a Prophet in Your Own Land
Bloodstain - Bloodstain
God Mother - Köttvärld
Crown of Magnetar - The Hollowing of Godflesh
Godflesh - Decay
Protomartyr - Hotel Usona
Brat - Manslayer
The Ocean - Solaris
Ethereal Tomb - Living to Dream Again
Noctule - Extinguish Thy Flame
Iskald - Curse of the Mind
Aborym - Metachaos
Krolok - Hričov  – Súľov – Lietava
Massteron - Second in the Spheres
Profanation - Ultra-Noise Warfare
Scorpion Milk - Flesh Mask for Skulls

September gets us all sludgy as reviews pore over new Mastodon, Green Lung, Anthrax, Chat Pile, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Sleep, Devil Master, & Wrong Man, Evanescence playing the UK's biggest arena, and Tony Iommi being the boss yet again.

Mastodon 38:10
Green Lung 1:22:40
Anthrax 1:48:34
Chat Pile 2:07:25
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats 2:26:18
Sleep 2:42:26
Devil Master 2:52:30
Wrong Man 3:10:13

First and foremost, we try to speak to the awful loss of Every Time I Die legend Andy Williams. From there we tackle new singles from Slipknot and Spiritbox, the hallucinatory hellscape stories related to Muse's Meta troubles and Breaking Benjamin's modder feud tirades, and put our tin foil hats to theorise that SURELY the Gallows teasing can't just be for vinyl reissues...

Releases:
Green Lung - Necropolitan
Brian Fallon - Not Bad for New Jersey
The Meffs - Business
Wrong Man - Here’s That Feeling
Killing of a Sacred Deer - Encephalic Angels
Harlott - Exsequiis
Dreadnought - Wars of Spirit // Wards of Light
Archgoat - Nightbringer, Lightbringer
Fluisteraars - Jacht der Mysterien
Epitaphe - III

This week we look back on a historic moment of live music for our podcast in our combined Big Goth Weekend with a run of shows from The Cure, Outbreak/All Points East with an epochal headlining set from Deftones, and our AFI watch finally being brought to an end with their first UK headline shows in 16 years.

Releases:
Mastodon - Marrow Deep
Beartooth - Pure Ecstasy
In This Moment - Witch
Dinosaur Jr. - There Near
Kamelot - Dark Asylum
Flotsam and Jetsam - Rats in the Temple
Exumer - Death Mask Messiah
Ninth Realm - Damnation’s Veil
Russian Circles - Nine
Kulk - Choosing to Die
Rat Cage - Not Asking for Much
Static Abyss - The Dying Hunt
Gorod - The Ember Gone
Epicardiectomy - Dismal Landscapes of Voluptuous Pustular Cadaverosis
Turn of Phrase - Out in the Water 
President - Blood of Your Empire
Showing Teeth - A Fate Worse Than Loneliness
Gradience - Anomaly
Airbourne - Airbourne
Audrey Horne - Achilles
156/Silence - From a Distance
Judiciary - Stalagmite Angels
Movements - Happier Now
Sleep - Hempispheres
Chat Pile - Who Loves the Sun
Arab Strap - Half-Told Tales
Sigh - Goh-ka
Devil Master - Bloody Dreams
Green Carnation - A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex
Tales of Perdition - The Theatre of Existence
Behemoth - I, Scvlptor

Rivers Cuomo's QR code woes, some goth-pop flourish and questioning what even is an album lead the way for TNM reviews this time with Weezer's Gold Album, Chelsea Wolfe, Electric Callboy, Living Weapon, The Night Eternal, and Zorn going under the magnifying glass.

Weezer 30:05
Chelsea Wolfe 1:07:20
Electric Callboy 1:34:27
Living Weapon 1:58:41
The Night Eternal 2:14:36
Zorn 2:25:33

Chelsea Wolfe's new album release show and Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American set arrive for a lucky few in the UK, there's new music from Haywire, God's Hate, and Down, the sad news of the passing of legendary ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard, extreme legend Justin Broadrick's appearance on the new Phoebe Bridgers album, and the craziest stadium support act announcement of all time.

Releases:
Weezer - Weezer (The Gold Album)
Chelsea Wolfe - The Dark
The Night Eternal - Cold Velvet
Fen - Elemental Part One: Mourning Earth
Azatoth - Carnal Lust of Blasphemy
God’s Hate - Won’t Be Disgraced
Dark Funeral - A Beast to Praise

This week we discuss how Bloodstock's 2027 announcement doubles down on a new direction, and pull out some of the lesser discussed gems within the line-up.

Releases:
Various Artists - A Tribute to Smashing Pumpkins: Sending Hearts to All My Dearies
Dead Tired - Hornets of Fall
Living Weapon - Death in the Family
Sweeping Promises - You Say I Romanticize
Invocation Ritual - Altered Reality
Holissstik - Chapter 1: This Endless Solitude

After a week of exasperating and confusing news we discuss the unconfirmed firing of Sid Wilson by Slipknot and Merauder's absolutely bizarre crashout, as well as big live announcements from Wacken, Megadeth, Mick Gordon, and the potential dungeon synth takeover of hardcore.

Releases:
Electric Callboy - Tanzneid
John Carpenter - Cathedral
Cancer Bats - Give Me Dirt
Citizen - Halcyon Blues
Jamie Lenman - Puke
Ceremony - Tell Me Your Dream
Public Opinion - The Curse of Public Opinion
Negative Frame - Break the Ice
Wealthy Women - Children
Hulder - Verbolgen
Dymna Lotva - Vyraj
Horrifier - Revelations of Gore

This humid summer gets that bit muckier as we check out the UK's growing slam, brutal death metal, and goregrind event at Offal Fest, as well as check in on Avenged Sevenfold's latest piece of craziness, and sadly speak to the passing of all time pillar of hardcore Lou Koller of Sick of It All.

Releases:
Waterparks - Jinx
No Pressure - NP Style
The Hu - Hun
Madball - Not Your Kingdom
REZN - Cycles in the Infinite Dream
Jordsjø - Pestkrønikene
Sallow Moth - Hydrophilous Brood
Linnéa RK Olsson - Perfect Wave
Five Finger Death Punch - Legacy
Disfiguring the Goddess - Bloom
Nothingness - Godslaughter
Altarage - Cogwheel
Lipoma - Infernal Wounds of Ravenous Flesh
Jig-Ai - Jigoku
Taake - En skog av nidstang
Long Goodbye - A Whispered Promise of Failure
Shearling - Don’t Look at Me the Way a Dog Might Look at Your Leg