That's Not Metal

After last week's trip to Slam Dunk, we hop to the other side of the UK festival spectrum to the upcoming black metal event Fortress Festival, headlined by Triptykon and Wolves in the Throne Room and setting black metal at the beach.

Releases:
Bon Jovi - Forever
Royal Republic - LoveCop
Apocalyptica - Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2
Evergrey - Theories of Emptiness
Joey Valance & Brae - No Hands
Sect - Plagues Upon Plagues
Candy - It’s Inside You
Umbra Vitae - Light of Death
Severe Torture - Torn from the Jaws of Death
Torturers’ Lobby - Deadened Nerves
Dysrhythmia - Coffin of Conviction
Hippotraktor - Stasis
Gurt - Satan Etc
Ernte - Weltenzerstorer

We take a trip to 2024's Slam Dunk event, and Nile come out with the song title of the year.

Releases:
Rotting Christ - Pro Xristou
Spiter - Enter the Gates of Fucking Hell
Thou - Umbilical
CHVE - Kalvarie
Four Stroke Baron - Data Diamond
The Hope Conspiracy - Tools of Oppression / Rule by Deception
Rhapsody of Fire - Challenge the Wind
Saltatio Mortis - Finsterwacht
Cloven Hoof - Heathen Cross
Bad Nerves - Still Nervous
Bad Breeding - Contempt
Hellbutcher - Hellbutcher
Troops of Doom - A Mass to the Grotesque
Shrapnel - In Gravity
House by the Cemetery - The Mortuary Hauntings
Haunted Plasma - I
Whoredom Rife - Den Vrede Makt
Wormwood - The Star
Graywave - Dancing in the Dust
Exodus - British Disaster: The Battle of ‘89 (Live at the Astoria)
Black Sabbath - Anno Domini 1989-1995

Def Leppard signal the dawn of the pop metal age with Pyromania, we evaluate if Fightstar's Grand Unification holds up, Comeback Kid make a modern hardcore classic Wake the Dead, and Autopsy set a bar for freakish death metal Mental Funeral.

This episode was originally published April 2023 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

May brings some of the biggest event releases in metal as we review Knocked Loose, Kerry King, Gatecreeper, Pallbearer, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, One Step Closer, Folterkammer, & Antichrist Siege Machine.

27:35 Knocked Loose
58:48 Kerry King
1:21:36 Gatecreeper
1:41:10 Pallbearer
2:00:36 Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats
2:24:26 One Step Closer
2:39:41 Folterkammer
3:06:16 Antichrist Siege Machine

Live trips to Sick of It All and Green Lung, big new additions to Outbreak and Damnation's schedules, reactions to news of a certain controversial label signing, and more Steve Albini worship.

Releases:
Missiles - Weaponize Tomorrow
Markgraf - Hohenbaden
Kerry King - From Hell I Rise
Gatecreeper - Darker Superstition
Jasta - …And Jasta for All
Pallbearer - Mind Burns Alive
Shellac - To All Trains
One Step Closer - All You Embrace
Rope Sect - Estrangement
Nocturnus A.D. - Unicursal
Pathology - Unholy Descent
Tzompantli - Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force
Bat - Under the Crooked Claw
Goden - Vale of the Fallen
Ufomammut - Hidden
Botanist - Paleobotany
Softcult - Heaven
Civil Elegies - No Life

Today's episode is dedicated to Steve Albini, the patron saint of alternative music, architect of the 90s, engineer of some of our greatest works of art across five different decades, and one of TNM's true heroes.

Releases:
Knocked Loose - You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To
Like Moths to Flames - The Cycles of Trying to Cope
Powerman 5000 - Abandon Ship
Kill II This - Variant
Hot Water Music - Vows
Indoor Pets - Pathetic Apathetic
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - Nell’ Ora Blu
Unleash the Archers - Phantoma
Freedom Call - Silver Romance
Anette Olzon - Rapture
Sebastian Bach - Child Within the Man
Arab Strap - I’m totally fine with it 👍 don’t give a fuck anymore 👍
Riot V - Mean Streets
Flamekeeper - Flamekeeper
Take Offense - T.O.tality
Six Feet Under - Killing for Revenge
Necrophagia - Moribundis Grim
Red Rot - Borders of Mania

April releases went absolutely crazy, and so this time on TNM we reviews albums from Pearl Jam, The Ghost Inside, Inter Arma, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Dool, Castle Rat, High On Fire, & Dvne, as well as singles from Motley Crue and Unto Others, and live trips to Pupil Slicer and Underdark/Devil Master.

36:49 Pearl Jam
55:25 The Ghost Inside
1:14:48 Inter Arma
1:47:10 SeeYouSpaceCowboy...
2:05:26 Dool
2:25:13 Castle Rat
2:39:12 High On Fire
2:57:07 Dvne

Prayers are answered as news hits of letlive. returning to play a round of shows, Thursday release their first song in 13 years, Frank Turner attempts the impossible, and live reports from Blind Guardian and Midnight.

Releases:
Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
The Ghost Inside - Searching for Solace
SeeYouSpaceCowboy - Coup de Grace
NOFX - Half Album
Cloud Nothings - Final Summer
High On Fire - Cometh the Storm
My Dying Bride - A Mortal Binding
Melvins - Tarantula Heart
Dvne - Voidkind
Bongripper - Empty
Big | Brave - A Chaos of Flowers
Dool - The Shape of Fluidity
Henrik Palm - Nerd Icon
Haust - Negative Music
Couch Slut - You Could Do It Tonight
Nuclear Tomb - Terror Labyrinthian
Antichrist Siege Machine - Vengeance of Eternal Fire
Folterkammer - Weibermacht
Hekseblad - Kaer Morhen
unpeople - unpeople

Architects release a new single in collaboration with Jordan Fish, but there is also an elephant in the room we have to discuss. Elsewhere Bloodywood get a big movie moment, music from Century Media's new signing Sonja, and questions on negative review pushback and our favourite foot in mouth band moments.

Releases:
Blue Öyster Cult - Ghost Stories
Castle Rat - Into the Realm
Týr - Battle Ballads
Riot V - Mean Streets
Vulture - Sentinels
Heavy Temple - Garden of Heathens
Tarot - Glimpse of the Dawn
Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties - In Lieu of Flowers
Heavenly Blue - We Have the Answer
Whores. - War.
Love Sex Machine - Trve
Necrot - Lifeless Birth
Benighted - Ekbom
Exist - Hijacking the Zeitgeist
Replicant - Infinite Mortality
Heresiarch - Edifice
Northlane - Mirror’s Edge

We polish off March's releases with a bonus review ep covering While She Sleeps' continued bizarre choices of experimentation in Self Hell and Sum 41's parting note of a double album Heaven :x: Hell.

Releases:
Bob Vylan - Humble as the Sun
Feeder - Black/Red
Alpha Wolf - Half Living Things
ERRA - Cure
Filth - Southern Hostility
Strung Out - Dead Rebellion
Bayside - There are Worse Things Than Being Alive
Cock Sparrer - Hand On Heart
Korpiklaani - Rankarumpu
Ingested - The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams
Hour of Penance - Devotion
Iron Monkey - Spleen & Goad
Friends of Hell - God Damned You to Hell
Destroyer of Light - Degradation Years
Horndal - Head Hammer Man
Attic - Return of the Witchfinder
Witch Vomit - Funeral Sanctum
Funeral Leech - The Illusion of Time
Diabolic Oath - Oracular Hexations
Locrian - End Terrain
Austere - Beneath the Threshold
The Good The Bad and the Zugly - Decade of Regression
Dreamcar - Dream