That's Not Metal

It's the last dance of the year with the TNM Awards, as the gang assemble to anoint the greats and truly take to task the bull: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

AOTY season continues at TNM with lists from 2022's fresh contributors Mark & Elliot, and most importantly the results of the listener album of the year poll are revealed and given the magnifying glass.

Start up the fanfare cause the Albums of the Year 2022 are here, celebrating another 12 months of great records with lists from Perran, Sam, & Alec.

Metallica are back with an absolute trad metal joy, we predict the albums of the year from metal's major outlets, and we open the official TNM Listener Album of the Year 2022 poll.Releases:Elder - Innate PassageJamie Lenman - The AtheistIn the Woods… - DiversumJudicator - The Majesty of DecayTrhä - endlh​ë​d​ë​haj q​á​shm​ë​na ëlh vim innivteTchornobog / Abyssal - SplitNOFX - Double AlbumAmberian Dawn - Take a Chance - A Metal Tribute to ABBAIsafjord - HjartastakiHammers of Misfortune - OvertakerNihilist Death Cult - Death to All TyrantsOther Half - Soft ActionCrosses - Permanent.Radiant

In May Album Clubs, we take the opportune time to fairly assess My Chemical Romance's as yet final album Danger Days. From there we dive into a world of weirdness with Swans' White Light from the Mouth of Infinity, Big Black's affront to tastefulness Songs About Fucking, and Sigh's ode to madness In Somniphobia.This episode was originally published May 2022 on patreon.com/thatsnotmetal.

In a week with Turnstile up for multiple Grammys, we head into our last reviews bag of 2022 with albums from Nickelback, Skin Failure, Devin Townsend, SpiritWorld, High Command, Turnover, Dream Unending, & Spider God.Nickelback 37:57Skin Failure 1:00:09Devin Townsend 1:14:47SpiritWorld 1:30:27High Command 1:41:29Turnover 1:51:46Dream Unending 2:04:44Spider God 2:18:45

This week we review this year's massive Damnation, seeing exclusive album sets from the likes of Converge and Pig Destroyer as the event steps up to a much larger part of the festival year, and the enormous line-up for 2023's Download is revealed.Releases:Skin Failure - RadillacL.S. Dunes - Past LivesChelsea Grin - Suffer In HellHe Is Legend - Endless HallwayXentrix - Seven WordsDream Unending - Song of SalvationBonecarver - Carnage FuneralSpider God - Fly in the TrapKampfar - Til Klovers TaktFell Ruin - Cast In Oil The Dressed WroughtConstellatia - Magisterial RomanceFjort - NichtEnvy - SeimeiLast In Line - A Day in the LifeEpica - The Alchemy Project

Hyperblasts mulls over the news that the Lingua Ignota project is being retired, casts an eye over some potential festival hints, and picks a bunch of the perfect rock mixes.Releases:Devin Townsend - LightworkTurnover - Myself in the WayIngested - Ashes Lie StillChuggaBoom - Death PledgeDayseeker - Dark SunBorn Without Bones - DancerWarlung - Vulture’s ParadiseInTechnicolour - Midnight HeavyweightThe Offering - Seeking the Elephant96 Bitter Beings - Synergy RestoredBlack Mirrors - Tomorrow Will Be Without UsBlack Anvil - RegenesisMord’A’Stigmata - Like Ants and SnakesFrank Bello - Then I’m Gone

In this week's Hyperblasts round up When We Were Young got windy, and as it's Halloween we book a TNM Spooktacular and hypothesise the Universal monster's record collections.Releases:The Otolith - Folium LiminaDarkthrone - Astral FortressDead Cross - IIPolyphia - Remember That You Will DieShow Me the Body - Trouble the WaterImplore - The Burden of ExistenceFit for a King - The Hell We CreateThe Gloom in the Corner - TrinityFire from the Gods - Soul RevolutionSingle Mothers - Everything You NeedTherion - Leviathan IIObsidious - IconicWorm - BluenothingPsychonaut - Violate Consensus RealityNoctem - Credo Certe Ne CrasDespised Icon - Déterré

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