That's Not Metal

On the single biggest release week of the year we head down to Ghost kicking off the Skeletour here in the UK, Charli XCX officially declares it a Turnstile Summer, the original Alice Cooper band reunites after 52 years, and there's important updates about last week's Weezer movie announcement.

Releases:
Superheaven - Superheaven
Melvins - Thunderball
Lik - Necro
Ancient Death - Ego Dissolution
Tribunal - In Penitence and Ruin
Heaven’s Gate - Tales from a Blistering Paradise
Zeicrydeus - La Grande Heresie
Ungraven - Hollows Made Homes In Their Sunken Cheeks
XweaponX - Weapon X Demo 2
Employed to Serve - Fallen Star
Inhuman Nature - Greater Than Death
Ghost - Skeletá
Machine Head - Unatoned
Landmvrks - The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been
Caliban - Back From Hell
Wednesday 13 - Mid Death Crisis
H.E.A.T. - Welcome to the Future
Heart Attack Man - Joyride the Pale Horse
Eluveitie - Anv
Pagan Altar - Never Quite Dead
Conan - Violence Dimension
Sumac / Moor Mother - The Film
BRUIT < - The Age of Ephemerality
Cancer - Inverted World
Caustic Wound - Grinding Mechanism of Torment
Kardashev - Alunea
Phantom - Tyrants of Wrath
Venator - Psychodrome
Hyena - About Rock and Roll
Big Boy - Love Songs
Profanatica - Wreathed In Dead Angels
David Eugene Edwards & Al Cisneros - Pillar of Fire/Capernaum
Cirith Ungol - Live at the Roxy

Reviews really hot up with some of the most hyped and acclaimed records of the year, some experiments from familiar faces, and some real underground crushers with Deafheaven, Scowl, Employed to Serve, Inhuman Nature, Messa, & Final Dose.

Deafheaven 25:41
Scowl 57:31
Employed to Serve 1:20:33
Inhuman Nature 1:43:08
Messa 1:52:32
Final Dose 2:07:53

We cover some of the biggest, baddest, craziest Album Clubs there is: Thin Lizzy go studs and leather on Thunder and Lightning, Wintersun undergo an epic, farcical saga to create Time I, Palm Reader's raise UK hardcore's ambition on Beside the Ones We Love, and Agoraphobic Nosebleed's hellish 99 song chemical digi-grind Altered States of America.

This episode was originally published March 2024 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

The time comes to hold a funeral for one of our podcast's greatest villains You Me At Six as their reign of tyranny comes to an end assessing their end and legacy, Turnstile hit us with their first track of Never Enough, a bumper questions section talking the best metal solo artists and two album wonders, and announcing a particularly crunchy band special.

Releases:
Epica - Aspiral
Cabal - Everything Rots
Teen Mortgage - Devil Ultrasonic Dream
Messa - The Spin
Idle Heirs - Life is Violence
Benthos - From Nothing
In the Woods… - Otra
Malphas - Extinct
Final Dose - Under the Eternal Shadow
Putrid Offal - Obliterated Life
Ryoji Shinomoto - Children of Bushido
The Lord Weird Slough Feg - Traveller Supplement 1: The Ephemeral Glades
CBZK - Dybuctwo
Angell - Veiled by Woe

Linkin Park release a new single but downgrade shows, Evanescence release 2025's hottest AMV, Midnight write an anthem for Cleveland Metal, and Danzig's in hot water for far right dogwhistles on merch.

Releases:
Scowl - Are We All Angels
Bleed From Within - Zenith
Thornhill - Bodies
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious
Benediction - Ravage of Empires
Tómarúm - Beyond Obsidian Euphoria
Allegaeon - The Ossuary Lens
Rotting Christ - 35 Years of Evil Existence - Live in Lycabettus
Balmora - Prologue
Dynamite - Settle the Score
Not Without Punishment - Blood Runs Cold

Sam and Perran sit down to talk about Knocked Loose's recent massive headline tour in the UK bringing Basement, Harms Way, & Pest Control into massive Academy venues, as well as Powerwolf announcing a UK arena and Download booking the Vengaboys, and a mega end of month release round-up.

Releases:
Ophicvs - Steel Beast
Cradle of Filth - The Screaming of the Valkyries
Bloodywood - Nu Delhi
Lordi - Limited Deadition
Secret Cutter - ///
Stormo - Tagli/Talee
Ursa - Call of the Infinite
Noisepicker - The Earth Will Swallow the Sun
Gates to Hell - Death Comes to All
Corpus Offal - Corpus Offal
Rancid Cadaver - Mortality Denied
Rothadás - Töviskert… a kísértés örök érzete… lidércharang
Iron Form - Cut From Cold Blood
anvilchandelier - anvilchandelier
heavenscoldhands - heavenscoldhands
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Underoath - The Place After This One
Memphis May Fire - Shapeshifter
Arch Enemy - Blood Dynasty
Alien Weaponry - Te Rā
The Darkness - Dreams On Toast
Backxwash - Only Dust Remains
Jivebomb - Ethereal
Doomsday - Never Known Peace
The Warriors - Burn Yourself Alive
Forlorn - Aether
Savage Master - Dark & Dangerous
Lady Beast - The Inner Alchemist
Seven Sisters - Shadow of a Fallen Star Pt.2
Cult of Fire - The One, Who is Made of Smoke
Teitanblood - From the Visceral Abyss
Lucifer’s Child - The Illuminant
Urn - Demon Steel
Amenra - De Toorn / With Fang and Claw
Wallows - More
Satsuma - this is my outside voice
Silent Planet / Invent Animate - Bloom In Heaven

In our new reviews show we stop to take stock of the state of some of our most popular heavy bands with Architects, Spiritbox, & A Day to Remember, as well as Whitechapel, Spiritworld, Warbringer, Imperial Triumphant, & Rwake. More hardcore bands imploding over idiocy too.

Architects 27:10
Spiritbox 1:05:56
A Day to Remember 1:30:17
Whitechapel 1:46:14
Spiritworld 2:08:37
Warbringer 2:25:29
Imperial Triumphant 2:39:08
Rwake 3:03:49

Napalm Death's 2025 edition of the Campaign for Musical Destruction (Bollocks) rolls around, Tool are being sued by their fans over setlist controversy, and we give our take on the ground-shaking moment when a member of Mastodon departs the band.

Releases:
Coheed and Cambria - Vaxis - Act III: The Father of Make Believe
Steven Wilson - The Overview
clipping. - Dead Channel Sky
Warbringer - Wrath and Ruin
Nite - Cult of the Serpent Sun
Rwake - The Return of Magic
The Body / Intensive Care - Was I Good Enough?
Wombbath - Beyond the Abyss
Warhammer - Total Maniac
Red Fang - Deep Cuts
Earth Crisis / Integrity Split

We really cover ground on this one: prog goes pop on Rush's Power Windows, 2010s Britrock goes horribly wrong when The Blackout Start the Party, American Football reinvent emo on LP1, and black metal's most comforting album in Agalloch's The Mantle.

This episode was originally published February 2024 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

Ghost unveil all things Skeletá, Slayer add yet another mega-show onto the UK summer, and Bobby Liebling is being seen by more people than should ever see Bobby Liebling.

Releases:
Architects - The Sky, The Earth & All Between
Oversize - Vital Signs
Cloakroom - Last Leg of the Human Table
Avantasia - Here Be Dragons
Dirkschneider - Balls to the Wall Reloaded
Stress Test - Stress Test
Havukruunu - Tavastland
Grima - Nightside
Effluence - Pianistic Dismemberment
Sleep Paralysis - Sleep Paralysis
Grave Infestation - Carnage Gathers
Sepulchral Voice - Crimson Moon Evocations
Ritual Ascension - Profanation
Scimitar - Scimitarium I
Hail Conjurer - Order of Disgrace
Tubal Cain - Slime Abyss
Spiritbox - Tsunami Sea
Whitechapel - Hymns In Dissonance
The Wildhearts - Satanic Rites of The Wildhearts
Raging Speedhorn - Night Wolf
Jethro Tull - Curious Ruminant
Destruction - Birth of Malice
Guiltless - Teeth to Sky
Ingrown - Idaho
Staticlone - Better Living Through Static Visions
This Gift is a Curse - Heir
Dawn of Ouroboros - Bioluminescence
Cryptosis - Celestial Death
Whipstriker - Cry of Extinction
Reconciler - Three Songs
Rootbrain - Mother Tomb
Sunami/Pain of Truth - Coast to Coast Split
Death Pulsation - Demo