That's Not Metal

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

At least one of the most anticipated heavy albums this decade hits our radars this month as Loathe, Muse, The Menzingers, The Xcerts, Fuming Mouth, No Cure, and Arise From Worms are reviewed, along with speculation about the seemingly imminent return of Gallows.

Loathe 37:32
Muse 1:09:13
The Menzingers 1:31:55
The Xcerts 1:49:20
Fuming Mouth 2:11:10
No Cure 2:24:04
Arise From Worms 2:33:29

It's the week where br00tal returned (and football season is over), as we make our way to Bring Me the Horizon's Count Your Blessings | Repented shows and into the re-recorded album for the biggest event in 2006 deathcore since... 2006.

Releases:
Final Resting Place - Third World Tribunal
Loathe - A Stranger to You
Motionless In White - Decades
Boundaries - Yearning: The unbeautiful after
Protest the Hero - Within
As It Is - As It Is
The Menzingers - Everything I Ever Saw
Quicksand - Bring on the Psychics
Fuming Mouth - The Ringing Bell
Fed Ash + HIRS - I AM BODY HORROR
Left to Die - Initium Mortis
Psycroptic - The Pulse of Annihilation
Imperium - Exodus Unknown
Emptiness - Nowhere Speaks
Haken - In a Fever Dream
Red Method - As In Life

Sound the charge, into glory ride, as Album Clubs look at the maddening effect Twenty One Pilots' ragga-pop Blurryface had on rock, the most metal band of all Manowar's debut Battle Hymns, Turnover's mastering of emo dreampop on Peripheral Vision, and one of the 21st century's greatest and wickedest rock bands The Devil's Blood with The Time of Time No Evermore.

This episode was originally published July 2025 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

Both Metallica's No Repeats weekend and My Chemical Romance's 20th anniversary Black Parade musical theatre reimagining hit UK stadiums, plus Damon Albarn beefs with an unlikely underground metal target.

Releases:
Bring Me the Horizon - Count Your Blessings | Repented
The Plot In You - The Plot In You
The Xcerts - i think i want to go home now
Show Me the Body - Alone Together
DevilDriver - Strike and Kill
No Cure - It Is Going to Get Dark
Daydream Plus - Second Last Day of Summer
If These Trees Could Talk - The Hidden Hand
Arise From Worms - A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction
Mourir - Nous, le venin