That's Not Metal

TNM talks bands we would have introduced to ourselves at an earlier age, a breadth of new tracks from Def Leppard, Exodus, Immolation and Haggard Cat, and Cryptopsy take to the UK with 200 Stab Wounds for 30 years of None So Vile.Releases:Megadeth - MegadethPoppy - Empty HandsCrystal Lake - The Weight of SoundTextures - GenotypeThe Damned - Not Like Everybody ElseBackengrillen - BackengrillenBarbarian - Reek of GodLigation - After Gods

2025 Album Clubs come from the land where the mullet attacks: Sabaton's Swedish concept album Carolus Rex, Hatebreed's hardcore benchmark Satisfaction is the Death of Desire, Visigoth's dungeon-keeping The Revenant King, and Family Force 5 give us Business Up Front/Party in the Back.This episode was originally published January 2025 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

New album singles from Poison the Well, Lamb of God, and Static Dress keep 2026 starting up, along with a killer first band announcement from Damnation Festival, and announcement of our first Patreon special for 2026.Releases:Kreator - Krushers of the WorldKid Kapichi - Fearless NatureGreywind - Severed Heart CityOv Sulfur - EndlessBlanket - True BlueSerpent Column - Aion of StrifeRifle - RiflePush - Plowing AheadCrush Your Soul - Ice WaterI Promised the World - I Promised the WorldLights Out - Fall on Your SwordGylt - In 1,000 Agonies, I ExistSin Against Sin - Demo 2

TNM usher in the new year with hopes, questions and predictions for 2026, and some familiar faces already poking their heads above the parapets for the year ahead.Releases:Ulver - NeverlandFuath - IIIWoe - Legacies of Human FrailtyPaleface Swiss - The Wilted EPAlter Bridge - Alter BridgeThe Ruins of Beverast - Tempelschlaf

Right before Christmas our last bash for 2025 is TNM Awards looking back over the highs and lows, the stories, the icons, the presidents, and the circuses that made the year in rock music what it was: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

Our second go of albums of the year for 2025 with Sam and Mark celebrating records from hair metal to hardcore, and your results for the TNM listener poll as we see who's bringing it home in a year filled with past winners and big dog contenders.

2025 Album of the Year time begins on That's Not Metal, with our first lists from Perran and Elliot celebrating everything from synth-punk to goth-doom, power-goregrind to jazz-death, post-metal to metalcore, legendary rock icons to grimy dungeon crust bands that this year gave us.

This week we've got reports from My Bloody Valentine's first shows since 2018 as we see one of the loudest bands in the world, reaction to Alissa White-Gluz being out of Arch Enemy, and we tell you how to get involved in our 2025 end of year shows.Releases:The Algorithm - Recursive InfinityThe Pretty Wild - zero.point.genesisDanko Jones - Leo RisingGasket - GasketStryper - The Greatest Gift of AllSpeedclaw - StardustMorbikon - Lost Within the Astral CryptsTerror Corpse - Ash Eclipses FleshFlesher - Gore On GoreDome Runner - World PanopticonSpanish Love Songs - A Brief Intermission in the Flattening of TimeThe Halo Effect - We Are ShadowsExitWounds - An Offering to TragedyMaster’s Hammer - Maldoror Discomale//gaze - Too Late NowExcide - Bastard HymnsEquilibrium - EquinoxBlut Aus Nord - Ethereal HorizonsThe Ominous Circle - Cloven Tongues of FirePhobocosm - GatewayFessus - Subcutaneous Tomb1349 - Winter Mass

2025's final reviews is a crazy bag of disco mania with Creeper's Sanguivore II, Pupil Slicer, Drain, Astronoid, Home Front, Lamp of Murmuur, and Master's Hammer, bid farewell to Svalbard on tour, a new single from Converge, and about half an hour before our record, doing cartwheels at the reunion of Black Breath.Creeper 31:51Pupil Slicer 1:09:19Drain 1:24:17Astronoid 1:35:08Home Front 1:47:29Lamp of Murmuur 1:59:08Master's Hammer 2:18:05

The UK's biggest dedicated extreme music fest at Damnation Festival goes bigger than ever for its 20th anniversary with a bonkers two day line-up featuring Corrosion of Conformity, Napalm Death, Deafheaven, Perturbator, Anaal Nathrakh, Amenra, Warning, Wormrot, Castle Rat, and so many more to crack our skulls.Releases:Of Mice & Men - Another MiracleThe Devil Wears Prada - FlowersRise of the Northstar - CHAPTER 04: RED FALCON SUPER BATTLE! NEO PARIS WAR!!AVVT/PTTN - AVVT/PTTNLamp of Murmuur - The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy1914 - Viribus UnitisBell Witch & Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough Vol. IIRagana & Drowse - Ash SouvenirVoidCeremony - AbditumChairmaker - Leviathan CarcassVower - A Storm Lined With Silver