That's Not Metal

This week's Hyperblasts reviews Architects' star-shooting new album, as well as covering the fiasco around Blink-182 tickets, Botch continuing to definitely not exist, and wondering which band could fight off the most goblins.Releases:Brutus - Unison LifeCabal - Magno InteritusInclination - Unaltered PerspectiveWitch Fever - Congregation84 Tigers - Time in the LighthouseOrden Ogan - Final Days: Orden Ogan and FriendsAvantasia - A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower SocietyAvatarium - Death, Where is Your StingSahg - Born DemonBlack Royal - EarthboundExhumed - To the DeadBattalions - King of a Dead WorldBlack Veil Brides - The MourningFull of Hell - Aurora Leaking from an Open WoundArchitects - The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit

In April's Album Clubs, AC/DC re-ascend to the throne with Black Ice, we return to the dawn of NYHC with Agnostic Front's Victim In Pain, celebrate the growing legacy of In Solitude's gothic heavy metal swansong Sister, and Kids In Glass Houses... try?This episode was originally published April 2022 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

The reaction to the Blink-182 return, October's reviews highlight massive drops in the metal calendar from Lamb of God and Lorna Shore, as well as records from Brutus, Counterparts, Press Club, Cloud Rat, and Cabal.Lamb of God 33:53Lorna Shore 55:42Brutus 1:16:19Counterparts 1:28:01Press Club 1:40:20Cloud Rat 1:47:25Cabal 2:00:33

It's an episode of heavy live music logistics, with Depeche Mode, Iron Maiden and While She Sleeps all announcing massive shows, a trip to Behemoth and Arch Enemy's co-headlining European Siege tour, and Rammstein shake up the board with their legal action against resale giant Viagogo.Releases:Acid Witch - Rot Among UsMelvins - Bad Moon RisingLamb of God - OmensWednesday 13 - HorrifierVukovi - NulaA.A. Williams - As the Moon RestsBush - The Art of SurvivalCounterparts - A Eulogy for Those Still HereGet the Shot - Merciless DestructionArmed for Apocalypse - Ritual ViolenceGoatwhore - Angels Hung from the Arches of HeavenCloud Rat - ThresholdThe Antichrist Imperium - Volume III: Satan In His Original GloryFaceless Burial - At the Foothills of DelirationLanguish - Feeding the Flames of AnnihilationAenaon - MnemosyneDe Profundis - The Corruption of VirtueQueensrÿche - Digital Noise AllianceFucked Up - OberonAncst - Zorn

One more massive record this month comes from Slipknot with this week's Hyperblasts holding our review of The End, So Far, the record that sees the band double down on dark experimentation and churning gloom for the discerning maggots.Releases:Gaerea - MirageKEN Mode - NullDaufødt - AromaterapiKid Kapichi - Here’s What You Could Have WonStratovarius - SurviveVenom Inc. - There’s Only BlackRazor - Cycle of ContemptFrayle - Skin & SorrowGutvoid - Durance of Lightless HorizonsLive Burial - My Head as TributeLostalone - The Warring TwentiesDrowning Pool - Strike a NerveLost Society - If the Sky Came DownTankard - Pavlov’s DawgsAutopsy - Morbidity TriumphantStake - Love, Death and DecayOff! - Free LSDNo Sun - In the InterimColdWorld - IsolationStrigoi - VisceraGodeater - VesperaDarkest Era - Wither on the VineEscuela Grind - Memory TheaterAutophagy - BacteriophageSammy Hagar and the Circle - Crazy TimesDropkick Murphys - This Machine Still Kills FascistsSlipknot - The End, So Far

It's the review motherlode from 2022's biggest month, with Parkway Drive, The Callous Daoboys, Megadeth, Behemoth, Clutch, Electric Callboy, Sumerlands, and The Wonder Years albums giving us disagreements, ethical discussions, huge tunes, and "ready spaghetti".Parkway Drive 28:20The Callous Daoboys 1:04:45Megadeth 1:25:17Behemoth 1:49:50Clutch 2:19:25Electric Callboy 2:32:11Sumerlands 2:56:37The Wonder Years 3:08:57

For March Album Clubs, time thaws on Judas Priest's poptastic Turbo, doesn't on The Rasmus' school disco goth with Dead Letters, there's Turbonegro's Scandipunk watershed Apocalypse Dudes, and Celtic Frost make metal's most revolutionary ever statement with Into the Pandemonium.This episode was originally published March 2022 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

A bumper live reviews pack checks out Machine Head and Amon Amarth's Vikings & Lionhearts tour, Blood Command, and The Xcerts, as well as a consideration of the reviewer mindset, and The Black Dahlia Murder looking to continue on.Releases:Behemoth - Opvs Contra NatvrumClutch - Sunrise On Slaughter BeachThe Mars Volta - The Mars VoltaSumerlands - DreamkillerNo Devotion - No OblivionBlaqk Audio - Trop d’amourDeath Cab for Cutie - Asphalt MeadowsSuede - AutofictionDestrage - So Much. Too Much.The Devil Wears Prada - Color DecayMindforce - New LordsThe Beths - Expert In A Dying Field Spiritus Mortis - The Great SealTribal Gaze - The Nine ChoirsMortuous - Upon DesolationInnumerable Forms - Philosophical CollapsePhobophilic - Enveloping AbsurdityWolfheart - King of the AbyssIrist - Gloria

Sam joined Perran for an impromptu weekend at the first and last UK Deathfest, in a week that also saw the first Taylor Hawkins tribute show, Fat Mike hinting that NOFX will be calling it quits, and Darkthrone continually topping their own album announcements like the kings they are.Releases:Parkway Drive - Darker StillOzzy Osbourne - Patient Number 9Stray From the Path - EuthanasiaBloodbath - Survival of the SickestRevocation - NetherheavenElectric Callboy - TekknoTallah - The Generation of DangerI Am - Eternal SteelDemon Hunter - ExileHoly Fawn - Dimensional BleedArmor for Sleep - The Rain MuseumAfghan Wigs - How Do You Burn?Flogging Molly - AnthemFallujah - EmpyreanCrippled Black Phoenix - BanefyreValborg - Der Alte

This week's Hyperblasts holds the much heralded review of Muse's further dive into lunacy Will of the People. Conversely there is the much more serious and important discussion around the news concerning Neurosis this week.Releases:Megadeth - The Sick, The Dying… and the Dead!Blind Guardian - The God MachineThe Callous Daoboys - Celebrity TherapistMiss May I - Curse of Existence156/Silence - NarrativeVermin Womb - RetaliationThe Hu - Rumble of ThunderCarnal Ruin - Soulless I RemainState of You - State of You

Some big summer album reviews with the massive return of Machine Head, The Interrupters, a melodeath barrage with Amon Amarth, The Halo Effect, and Arch Enemy, Sigh, and Thoughtcrimes, as well a new Botch song after 20 years that people were very normal about.Machine Head 26:42The Interrupters 55:06Amon Amarth 1:11:23The Halo Effect 1:31:50Arch Enemy 1:41:30Sigh 1:52:41Thoughtcrimes 2:06:03

Album Club Pack returns for Round 2, landing a hard rocking grunge classic in Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, The Defiled's independent industrial metalcore debut Grave Times, a 2010s alt rock cornerstone in Basement's Colourmeinkindness, and an extreme metal Valentine's Day special on Bloodbath's Nightmares Made Flesh.This episode was originally published February 2022 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

A lot later than intended due to the small matter of needing a whole new microphone, but finally the That's Not Metal review of Bloodstock Festival 2022 is here! Perran is joined by Elliot Paisley to talk the UK heavy metal event headlined by Behemoth, Mercyful Fate, and Lamb of God.

The first new music from Fugitive featuring members of Power Trip and Creeping Death is here, with Ozzy and Iommi appearing at the Commonwealth games, and trying to reach for what are the worst albums we still secretly love.Releases:Arch Enemy - DeceiversThe Halo Effect - Days of the LostNorma Jean - Deathrattle Sing for MeHollywood Undead - Hotel KaliforniaBoris - Heavy RocksLocrian - New CatastrophismsAEIR - A Frith BefouledAcid Blade - Power DiveWeregoat - The Devil’s LustKreator - Live at Bloodstock 2021

There's festival news around the world from Music Midtown's gun-caused cancellation to theorising on the identity of Bloodstock's first ever secret band, picking what bands would be on a TNM tour in 2022, and we cast our eyes over the clues that suggest Botch might actually be reuniting after all. If they're not trolling.Releases:The Interrupters - In the WildAmon Amarth - The Great Heathen ArmySoulfly - TotemDub War - Westgate Under FireSavage Master - Those Who Hunt At NightThe Flatliners - New RuinMercy Union - White TigerHot Milk - The King and Queen of GasolinePsycroptic - Divine CouncilAbaddon Incarnate - The Wretched SermonEther Coven - The Relationship Between the Hammer and the NailLiminal Shroud - All Virtues AblazeWampyric Rites - The Wolves Howl to the Moon

On the eve of their new album release we're joined by Cammie Gilbert of Oceans of Slumber to talk about Louisiana sludge, classic Seattle, turbulent Americana and Scandinavian folk-pop.Agents of Oblivion - Agents of OblivionAlice In Chains - DirtMark Lanegan - Blues FuneralSoundgarden - SuperunknownThe Civil Wars - The Civil WarsEivør - SlørThis episode was originally published as early access on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

A heavy rock band are actually up for the Mercury Music Prize for once, we pick the best riffs of 2022 and the best songs to test your headphones with, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are back at it again.Releases:Ithaca - They Fear UsDune Rats - Real Rare WhaleStick to Your Guns - SpectreBastions - Majestic DesolationDance Gavin Dance - Jackpot JuicerBeach Rats - Rat BeatUnwritten Law - The HumAnberlin - SilverlineFuneral Chic - Roman CandleKrisiun - Mortem SolisTriumvir Foul - Onslaught to Seraphim

It's time for one of modern metal's great traditions, the lowdown on a full new Slipknot era with reactions to new album, new songs and new masks. There's also a contentious new A Day to Remember single coming out of the You're Welcome cycle, as well as heavy discussion on what rising ticket prices at Download Festival could mean, and remembrance of one of heavy metal's great modern painters Mariusz Lewandowski.Releases:Deaf Havana - The Present is a Foreign LandSenses Fail - Hell is in Your Head…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead - XI: Bleed Here NowThe Ever Living - Artificial DevicesMantar - Pain is Forever and This is the EndHaunt - Windows of Your HeartFellowship - The Saberlight ChroniclesBehold! The Monolith - From the Fathomless DeepInhuman Condition - FearsickMolder - Engrossed In DecayMaul - Seraphic PunishmentHissing - Hypervirulence ArchitectureTombs - Ex OblivionImperial Triumphant - Spirit of EcstasyOceans of Slumber - Starlight and AshWitchery - NightsidePalisades - Reaching Hypercri

Album Club has a brand new home, giving you a month's worth of classic records in one swoop as our first episode positions Enter Shikari's A Flash Flood of Colour as the springboard for their next ten years, unearths Porcupine Tree's information age prog dystopia Fear of a Blank Planet, considers the untapped potential of Black Peaks' All That Divides, and tries to do justice to the profound heartbreaker that is Woods of Ypres' Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light.This episode was originally published January 2022 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

Incredibly dense and rich albums populate reviews with a returning Porcupine Tree, Conjurer, Greg Puciato, Ithaca, Imperial Triumphant, Blood Command, Wormrot, and Oceans of Slumber, but news that Pantera are "reuniting" seems maddest of all.Porcupine Tree 38:16Conjurer 56:05Greg Puciato 1:18:49Ithaca 1:32:35Imperial Triumphant 1:46:25Blood Command 2:07:12Wormrot 2:26:20Oceans of Slumber 2:44:10