Bands that went downhill

@Brodehouse said:

@Pimpsandwich

Dream Theater. Granted I've been kinda losing interest in their entire catalogue over the years, but the last two albums have been completely forgettable.

I haven't listened to a Dream Theater album since Octavarium. Every year it seemed like there was less and less progressive qualities to their music, it was just very difficult heavy metal. I think a lot of it had to do with Mike Portnoy making a rule that all potential songs needed to have a vocal melody included with them; instead of making music and laying words in over it; Learning to Live is essentially an instrumental with a poem sung over it. Maybe they got better since getting rid of Portnoy. And yeah, all bands get worse. I'm gonna bum out some indie fans but, the Arcade Fire is only going to get worse from here. It's either going to be the next album or the one after that.

That's definitely what happened, which pretty much stripped them of what made them interesting, which culminated in The Shattered Fortress which was just a mashup of a bunch of old songs, filled with bad growling and distortion.

I definitely hoped getting rid of Portnoy would help, but the latest album just sounds like the one before that. I probably couldn't tell the difference anymore.

The Goo Goo Dolls. God damn it.

@Labman said:

@TeflonBilly: Beat me to Metallica! They went to shit.

Metallica has been going downhill since 1991.

Serj Tankian. The first album was alright, pretty weird, very cryptic. The second wasn't quite so cryptic, but sounded very good. Now the third came out and it's full of left-wing environmentalist BS out the wazoo and sounds like the first progressive record of some punk band. The lyrics are terrible!

@VierasTalo said:

Serj Tankian. The first album was alright, pretty weird, very cryptic. The second wasn't quite so cryptic, but sounded very good. Now the third came out and it's full of left-wing environmentalist BS out the wazoo and sounds like the first progressive record of some punk band. The lyrics are terrible!

Ugh, yes. I absolutely love his first two solo albums. Felt they were the best work of his career, even. Then Harakiri comes out, and... meh. It feels so half assed and generic. Hopefully the rest of his "album jam" provides better results.

@Brodehouse said:

@Pimpsandwich

Dream Theater. Granted I've been kinda losing interest in their entire catalogue over the years, but the last two albums have been completely forgettable.

I haven't listened to a Dream Theater album since Octavarium. Every year it seemed like there was less and less progressive qualities to their music, it was just very difficult heavy metal. I think a lot of it had to do with Mike Portnoy making a rule that all potential songs needed to have a vocal melody included with them; instead of making music and laying words in over it; Learning to Live is essentially an instrumental with a poem sung over it. Maybe they got better since getting rid of Portnoy. And yeah, all bands get worse. I'm gonna bum out some indie fans but, the Arcade Fire is only going to get worse from here. It's either going to be the next album or the one after that.

I have this feeling that the reason why Mike Portnoy wanted to give DT a break was because he fell in love with 4/4 while playing with Avenged Sevenfold. I know I'm sounding like one of those douche bags that go "oh well no member of Avenged Sevenfold went to a music school and that's why DT tunes are the Citizen Kane of music", but hear me out.

Here we have a drummer who's been playing 20 plus years to tunes that give audiences no chance to headbang, mosh, etc because the song structures are out of the ordinary. All of a sudden he's performing these songs while co-headlining with Megadeth on the Gigantour and everybody in the crowd is like "alright, sure." It's really hard to introduce a band like DT to people who kind of just wanna have a beer and flip the bird rather than listen to Take The Time and make note of all the little nuances like Petrucci coming back into the tune with a volume pedal.

So then we end up with albums like Train of Thought, Systematic Chaos, and Black Clouds & Silver Linings where they try to hit that 4/4 stride so that they can have a better massive appeal. They did Black Metal for the first time in BC&SL and even though it sounded pretty cool it's the only thing I remember off of that album while the rest just sounded like a tug of war. Fuck it. Might as well take a break, tour with Avenged Sevenfold, and realize that what you want works with this group of young, hip musicians instead of the group you've been with for the past 20 years. Even though he tried to get DT to give Metal a go they still wanted a visceral challenge for the fingers.

It's tough knowing that he's not in the band, but that last album was a sigh of relief for me because I knew that I wouldn't hear another attempt at metal which usually results in Mike having a spot on vocals ("DAY AFTER DAY, NIGHT AFTER NIGHT..." somebody will know what I'm talking about). I listen to Dream Theater because I could hear that they love music enough to treat listeners to a mix bag of genres and pull it off with daring gusto. The instrumental portion of Dark Eternal Night was the last best example. All of Images & Words as well. Awake got a little mopey for me with that second half, but damn me if I don't get a kick out of that first half. Then there's Scenes From a Memory, Six Degrees...

...sorry @Brodehouseand @Pimpsandwich for ranting on a quote, but yeah. My answer is Dream Theater except that they plateaued after their second-to-last album. Gotta see where they go from there. In the mean time...

Incubus for the reason Patrick stated on the Halo 24 hour live stream. Also Green Day for sure. I don't agree with Foo Fighters, their new album is awesome and I just seen them live a couple of months back and they still rock

Coldplay.

@TheKramer89 said:

Coldplay.

Coldplay first 2 albums were pretty sweet.

I'm going to say Queen after 1995.

@Szlifier said:

I'm going to say Queen after 1995.

Wait, Queen are still around?

The Strokes, Interpol, and Weezer all had incredible first albums, similar but still good second albums, and then a downward spiral following. The best a band can hope for when trying to go for longevity is a situation like Dinosaur Jr, who, despite not being quite as interesting as they once were, have been rather consistent for their almost 30-year lifespan.

The way to do it is just write your best album, then quit.

Eminem's come back was super disappointing. The album was good but what differentiated Eminem from anyone else was the pure insanity and how fun he used to make his music. Eminem now is non-stop I have a sleeping pill problem and look how bad my relationships are shut the fuck up.

Deadmu5 new album is super fucking underwhelming, also stop all the fucking pandering. He literally named his album "album titles goes here" and used his cat as the album cover. We get it, you use the internet.

Sevendust.

Their self-titled album, Home, and Animosity have permanent residence on my iPhone, but Seasons was an extension of the "Mainstreaming" I didn't really notice on Animosity until it was pointed out to me.

Then they had "Next" which was forgettable, "Alpha" which I consider an equal to Animosity, then "Chapter VII" made me give up on them. I hear their new album is good, but I can't give it a shot. Too many painful memories associated with me listening to Chapter VII.

Dream Theater is an odd one for me, becasue I got into them with Train of Thouhgt and I'm one of those people who doesn't hate Octavarium, Systemic Chaos, or Black Clouds and Silver Linings, but when I went back to the older stuff I could see why people who had been into them all along would dislike those albums.

I really liked A Dramatic Turn of Events. Not as heavy as Train of Thought throuhg Black Clouds, but not quite a return to the Images and Words and Awake days.

Children of Bodom and Nightwish are in the same category as Dream Theater for me. Got into CoB with Relentless Reckless Forever and Nightwish with Dark Passion Play.

Thinking about it, the only band with a substantial career that hasn't truly disappointed me or had a significant drop in quality over their run is Rush. I own and celebrarte their entire catalog, but 90's Rush is my favorite era (Presto, Roll the Bones, Counterparts, Test for Echo) because they have a unique "Jam" feel to them. The only really disappointing album Rush has ever released is Vapor Trails, but even the band admits they fucked up the mix on it; too guitar heavy, too loud. I'd love to hear a remixed version of Vapor Trails, as that may be the thing that actually gets me to like that album.

As for post-Vapor Trails, Snakes and Arrows feels like the natural progression of 90's Rush and Clockwork Angels has been oxygen for me since it's release.

EDIT: Wait, I forgot Queensryche. Steady uphill climb that peaked with Operation: Mindcrime and Empire, started their decline with Promised Land, released the uneven Hear in the Now Frontier and Q2K, made a comeback with Tribe, then lost me with the totally unnecessary Operation: Mindcrime II. I ignored Take Cover and American Soldier. After Mindcrime II, I find myself in a Sevendust situation.

Pink floyd went downhill after waters left.

Unheilig, SLoT and Lacrimas Profundere; I'm sure everybody agrees with me here.

@Szlifier said:

I'm going to say Queen after 1995.

Wait, Queen are still around?

Weezer: First four albums were PHENOMENAL. Everything afterwards... ehh.

Metallica: Refer to my Weezer comment.

Green Day: I honestly liked every bit of their first eight studio albums (even 21st Century Breakdown, believe it or not) and their side projects, but Uno was a big disappointment. But hey, at least the snippets from Dos are looking pretty great, right? Kinda got a Foxboro Hot Tubs vibe. But yeah, bottom line: Uno made me has a sad.

Alice in Chains: Compared to their first two albums and (primarily) acoustic EPs, their self-titled was OK. After losing Staley and getting a new lead singer, things just weren't the same.

Sublime: Sublime with Rome is blasphemy.

Children of Bodom: They really softened up too much after a couple of albums.

Muse: Middling debut, fantastic 2nd and 3rd albums, great 4th album, decent 5th album... then dubstep. Urgh.

Rolling Stones: Weak ever since Tattoo You. Although the new single's decent.

Helmet: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED????

Alice Cooper: Shouldn't have left the original band...

The Offspring: A band known for great, metallic punk songs like Genocide and Come Out and Play resorting to Katy Perry-esque "parody" shit? Dear lord, even Pretty Fly wasn't that bad; at least it was kind of amusing.

Judas Priest: Nostradamus makes me pray for the end of times to come already.

Atheist: Do not mention that last album to me. Ever.

Bush: They were never particularly great, but that last album was foul, cheap pop throwaway.

Guns N' Roses: OK band that really turned into something awful. More like Axl Rose N' Friends now.

Some bands that lost their touch but came back to form include: Slayer, Iron Maiden, and Megadeth (even if Dave's an idiot).

Some bands that probably would've lost their touch eventually: The Beatles, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin (Their last two albums were weak, but they hadn't quite gone downhill. Yet.), Oliveri-era Queens of the Stone Age, and Sublime with Bradley.

I tend to name bands like The Rolling Stones and The Who in these kinds of conversations. Bands that have stayed around so goddamned long that they can't perform like they used to, and now they're shambling relics of what they once were. The Stones are closer, at least, with Jagger still having the energy, which is better than Daltrey, who doesn't move all that much. Doesn't help that neither one can sing anymore, though. Richards, Townshend, the rest, they're all still doing okay, but hearing the vocals fall makes it hard to get as excited as seeing, say, Waters or Aerosmith live. Definitely doesn't help that neither The Who or The Stones have released notable songs since the late 70's, either.

Eminem is a classic response for me, too. Never seen anybody slip into irrelevancy and boring material more drastically on a comeback. There were a few good songs on Recovery, but the rest has been more than disappointing.

Everyone naming Metallica is obviously accurate that they went downhill, but I enjoyed The Black Album more than large sections of ...And Justice For All and even Ride The Lightning, and All Nightmare Long is one of my all-time favorites by the band. It's not as drastic or infuriating as I think people make it out to be. Yes, nothing was quite as good as Master of Puppets again, but is that really surprising?

The same goes for Green Day. American Idiot and ¡Uno! have some great songs, although I'll admit I still have never made it through 21st Century Breakdown. I like Idiot better than most of Nimrod and Warning, which is shocking primarily to Green Day fans rather than the rest of the world. Dookie is still the best album, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt on 21st Century Breakdown and hoping this new trilogy gives me something to cheer for. Oh, and I like The 2nd Law quite a bit too, so Muse fans will have to forgive me that one.

I don't like RHCP's albums anymore, but I'd still love to go to a 21+ show by them. Forget seeing them at a festival, though.

...also, pretty sure no band went downhill like Linkin Park. Went from musically unique (if not good, at least unique) to...well, this.

EDIT: Because I'm an idiot, see below.

Has the Nirvana joke been made yet?

I feel kinda bad for saying this, but I think Jack White's new albums are shit. Some of them are good, but man it's like what the hell happened man? He was given a good spot on Rolling Stone's top guitarists and then all of a sudden he kinda goes down hill. It may seem immature to some people, but it seems like he should really focus on his guitar work.

I dont know how, but in my opinion Radiohead has released awesome albums every single time and yet they still seem to keep their own style over the years.

The Doors lost it after Jim Morrisson died (Yes they're still around)

AC/DC is kind of a strange nut. Brian Johnson could never replace Bon Scott and it's not as if they've done anything spectacular or even new in teh last 20 or so years. But they still make good formulaic bar rock. It's like comfort food.

I'll say Weezer, Interpol and Muse I loved their first couple albums but then kinda fell off.

@Little_Socrates: John Entwistle is not doing okay... because he's dead.

@TheVeteran13: Fuck, right, I knew that and totally spaced out. That's super-embarrassing.

Underoath.

Allow me to explain. I'm not a religious person, and I usually despise contemporary religious music. I can dig old school hymns and whatnot, but I tend to agree with the majority of the internet about the quality of current Christian music. Except for Underoath's fourth album. I may completely disagree with the message behind They're Only Chasing Safety, but the lyrics are well written, and it had a really unique sound. Everything after that was super bland, and it has way more in common with other contemporary Christian music than the operatic emo metal that defined my high school years.

I feel kinda bad for saying this, but I think Jack White's new albums are shit. Some of them are good, but man it's like what the hell happened man? He was given a good spot on Rolling Stone's top guitarists and then all of a sudden he kinda goes down hill. It may seem immature to some people, but it seems like he should really focus on his guitar work.

I dont know how, but in my opinion Radiohead has released awesome albums every single time and yet they still seem to keep their own style over the years.

Weezer, Green Day, The Pixies, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, CCR, The Clash, Pil; but I can just keep going..................

On the other side there are bands like The Smiths, Dinosaur Jr, and Nirvana who wrote one amazing song after another.

@notdavid said:

Underoath.

Allow me to explain. I'm not a religious person, and I usually despise contemporary religious music. I can dig old school hymns and whatnot, but I tend to agree with the majority of the internet about the quality of current Christian music. Except for Underoath's fourth album. I may completely disagree with the message behind They're Only Chasing Safety, but the lyrics are well written, and it had a really unique sound. Everything after that was super bland, and it has way more in common with other contemporary Christian music than the operatic emo metal that defined my high school years.

I love They're Only Chasing Safety. I'm not a Christian either, but I can acknowledge good music. Honestly though, it feels more like a one off then any point of decline. They're weird black metal inspired music before TOCS and whatever it was that followed that album didn't gel at all with me.

@ShockD said:

Unheilig, SLoT and Lacrimas Profundere; I'm sure everybody agrees with me here.

If it makes you feel better I agree with 2 out of the 3, but Unheilig's music just keeps getting catchier.

I think Children Of Bodom went downhill, though not because they got softer or anything, I think that their compositions started getting lazy around Hate Crew Deathroll which was a very hit and miss album. Everything after it seems to be missing the romantic era influence that made CoB's first 3 albums great.

Genesis starting going downhill at Abacab which was decent but a definite departure from their proggy roots.

@habster3 said:

Weezer: First four albums were PHENOMENAL. Everything afterwards... ehh.

Metallica: Refer to my Weezer comment.

Green Day: I honestly liked every bit of their first eight studio albums (even 21st Century Breakdown, believe it or not) and their side projects, but Uno was a big disappointment. But hey, at least the snippets from Dos are looking pretty great, right? Kinda got a Foxboro Hot Tubs vibe. But yeah, bottom line: Uno made me has a sad.

Alice in Chains: Compared to their first two albums and (primarily) acoustic EPs, their self-titled was OK. After losing Staley and getting a new lead singer, things just weren't the same.

Sublime: Sublime with Rome is blasphemy.

Children of Bodom: They really softened up too much after a couple of albums.

Muse: Middling debut, fantastic 2nd and 3rd albums, great 4th album, decent 5th album... then dubstep. Urgh.

Rolling Stones: Weak ever since Tattoo You. Although the new single's decent.

Helmet: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED????

Alice Cooper: Shouldn't have left the original band...

The Offspring: A band known for great, metallic punk songs like Genocide and Come Out and Play resorting to Katy Perry-esque "parody" shit? Dear lord, even Pretty Fly wasn't that bad; at least it was kind of amusing.

Judas Priest: Nostradamus makes me pray for the end of times to come already.

Atheist: Do not mention that last album to me. Ever.

Bush: They were never particularly great, but that last album was foul, cheap pop throwaway.

Guns N' Roses: OK band that really turned into something awful. More like Axl Rose N' Friends now.

Some bands that lost their touch but came back to form include: Slayer, Iron Maiden, and Megadeth (even if Dave's an idiot).

Some bands that probably would've lost their touch eventually: The Beatles, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin (Their last two albums were weak, but they hadn't quite gone downhill. Yet.), Oliveri-era Queens of the Stone Age, and Sublime with Bradley.

Wait Sublime are still going after their lead singer died....Same with Queen and AC\DC you lose your lead singer at least have the decency to change the bands name same goes vice versa with the shit Axel Rose is pulling.

@TeflonBilly said:

@GunGunW said:

Green Day BIG time. Although I still like them, just I love their old stuff much more. I had to admit their new singles are really catching my ear, though.

I'm kinda sad that Green Day didn't go more in the direction Nimrod and Warning were going. Sure Dookie is still my favorite, but it seemed like a really organic maturation from that to Insomniac, then Nimrod and finally Warning. They just played around with such an eclectic amount of instrumentation and styles, yet I never thought it felt too jumbled and chaotic. I thought American Idiot was an alright album, but I got bored of it real quickly. I still enjoy alotta tracks off Nimrod and Warning a lot. That's kinda why I'm bummed that they seem to be riding the American Idiot wave for all it's worth still. But hey, it sold a hell of a lot more than the albums I liked, so what do I know?

American Idiot was a pretty great album but it was obvious they were taking the band in a different direction with that album considering their album before that was Green Days : Greatest Hits.

@GunGunW said:

Green Day BIG time. Although I still like them, just I love their old stuff much more. I had to admit their new singles are really catching my ear, though.

The new album sounds like they're going back to their old sound (American Idiot era), it's worth a listen.

@habster3 said:

The Offspring: A band known for great, metallic punk songs like Genocide and Come Out and Play resorting to Katy Perry-esque "parody" shit? Dear lord, even Pretty Fly wasn't that bad; at least it was kind of amusing.

Are you talking about this?

Yeah... I remember when I first saw this video brought up in a tweet with someone complaining about them and I could not understand why until I actually watched the video.

For me it has to be The Killers. Hot Fuss was such a brilliant album, but everything since then has been a letdown.

@JazGalaxy said:

most bands peak after a couple of albums unless they're full on REAL musicians.

Don't be that guy. A musician is musician because he/she makes music. He/she may not be very good, but that doesn't change the fact that he/she is a musician. Every band has it's peaks and valleys, saying stuff like that is ridiculous and ignorant.

muse and opeth

All bands, ever.

@rflx said:

Muse.

They will never live up to Origin of Symmetry. Its sad, really.

@MariachiMacabre: I agree. In Flames have definitely gone downhill in my opinion with their latest two albums. Not a big fan of A Sense of Purpose or Sounds of a Playground Fading, the killer riffs and groove from the previous albums are nearly non-existent on these minus a few flourishes of awesomeness.

Although I definitely prefer Colony, Clayman and Come Clarity to Whoracle and the Jester Race. I think the riffs, vocals and overall songwriting is at a much higher, more accomplished level on those albums.

Metallica is the #1 band I think of when I look at a band that's fallen from grace. They were the reason I got into metal and picked up a guitar so long ago and have failed to deliver for over 20 years since. I'm all for them doing things their own way and completely respect their need to evolve and change but it's been poor quality stuff since The Black album imo.

Since my go to bands have already been mentioned (KoL and Metallica) I'll say Boston. It's not really that they went downhill so much that there was no way they could ever live up to their debut album. There was nowhere to go but down.

@notdavid said:

Underoath.

Allow me to explain. I'm not a religious person, and I usually despise contemporary religious music. I can dig old school hymns and whatnot, but I tend to agree with the majority of the internet about the quality of current Christian music. Except for Underoath's fourth album. I may completely disagree with the message behind They're Only Chasing Safety, but the lyrics are well written, and it had a really unique sound. Everything after that was super bland, and it has way more in common with other contemporary Christian music than the operatic emo metal that defined my high school years.

Have you heard their first two albums? I can't listen to Cries of the Past enough times to get bored of it. It hasn't been in print for like ten years now, but if you haven't heard it find a way to listen to that. It's so different from anything else they ever did.

Man, that last Opeth CD was a bummer.

Smashing Pumpkins. "The world is a vampire, sent to drayiyiyaiin". The death knell.

@MariachiMacabre said:

The only band I can think of would be In Flames. I still love their newest album, Sounds of a Playground Fading, but it's nothing close to the masterpieces they've made previously like Whoracle and The Jester Race. To be fair, it's hard to match two of the greatest albums metal has to offer.

Two of the greatest albums metal has to offer? What? I agree they are pretty damn good, but come on ^^

Barenaked Ladies nosedived so hard. They used to be great.. but now? Not so much.

@GunGunW said:

Green Day BIG time. Although I still like them, just I love their old stuff much more. I had to admit their new singles are really catching my ear, though.

This. After American Idiot.. they just tanked. 21st Century Breakdown had maybe.. two good songs, and this three album thing of theirs just sounds stupid.

@MariachiMacabre said:

The only band I can think of would be In Flames. I still love their newest album, Sounds of a Playground Fading, but it's nothing close to the masterpieces they've made previously like Whoracle and The Jester Race. To be fair, it's hard to match two of the greatest albums metal has to offer.

Two of the greatest albums metal has to offer? What? I agree they are pretty damn good, but come on ^^

Dance Gavin Dance. New album is so bad, and their last one wasn't very good either.

@TeflonBilly said:

@rflx said:

Muse.

I really wonder what the hell happened after Black Holes And Revelations. That was like the fourth amazing album in a row with Showbiz, Origin Of Symmetry and Absolution managing to fill the rock star void that Radiohead didn't want to be in after OK Computer the best of all the other pretenders to the throne. Their mesh of what OK Computer hinted at and with a dash of Queen and their own magic was great. Then they shat the bed completely with the two subsequent albums.

While there is some truth to this, Animals is one of the best songs they have written. But yeah, Bellamys Queen complex is ridiculous, to the point that I enjoyed the last half of The 2nd much more than the first.