Bands who have completely changed style over the years

Life of Agony - started off as a thrash band in 1989, changed their style to a more meaty, riff-based approach for their debut album in 1991, and are now a Radiohead-esq rock band. All their albums are very enjoyable, however, and they're still fairly decent.

Black Sabbath - got an actual vocalist in 1980 and pretty much ruled since then. Tony Martin, Ian Gillan, Dio and Glenn Hughes > Ozzy. (Black Sabbath is an absolute don of an album, though, and its the only one where Ozzy sounds good)

Radiohead - their musical change is obvious even to a house plant, but perhaps what changed most drastically after The Bends/OKC were the lyrics - Thom almost stopped writing in traditional sentences and used subtle phrases which 'set the scene.' This lyrical style is most prominant on Kid A, but many songs on HTTT and Amnesiac also use this lyrical style.

Anyone else?

Metallica? Foo Fighters? Yes? Genesis?

Johnny Cash: He's dead now.

Spoiler:

Explanations plox! There are obviously more, but being arsed to write about more than three is a ridiculous ask. Foo Fighters never really changed for the better, though, as they've always been shit.

shaunography wrote:

Explanations plox! There are obviously more, but being arsed to write about more than three is a ridiculous ask. Foo Fighters never really changed for the better, though, as they've always been shit.

I thought the self-titled album was very good. The subsequent ones were nothing special, though. I hate the way Grohl changed his singing style.

O Goncho wrote:

Johnny Cash: He's dead now.

Spoiler:

No, he plays lead for Velvet Revolver.

Tom Westside wrote:

shaunography wrote:

Explanations plox! There are obviously more, but being arsed to write about more than three is a ridiculous ask. Foo Fighters never really changed for the better, though, as they've always been shit.

I thought the self-titled album was very good. The subsequent ones were nothing special, though. I hate the way Grohl changed his singing style.

The only two songs I've heard from their debut are the two singles; neither of which were overly impressive. The last album I heard through by them was that one with All My Life on it. That album was dire. Beyond belief.

shaunography wrote:

Tom Westside wrote:

shaunography wrote:

Explanations plox! There are obviously more, but being arsed to write about more than three is a ridiculous ask. Foo Fighters never really changed for the better, though, as they've always been shit.

I thought the self-titled album was very good. The subsequent ones were nothing special, though. I hate the way Grohl changed his singing style.

The only two songs I've heard from their debut are the two singles; neither of which were overly impressive. The last album I heard through by them was that one with All My Life on it. That album was dire. Beyond belief.

None of the best tracks on the original are singles, they're just the most radio friendly ones.

Their first one seems like the only one I may have a vague interest in, but I can't see myself ever buying it. I don't even buy Faith No More's "Introduce Yourself" if it's a fiver, and FNM are one of my favourite bands... I'm not investing a fiver into those horrible, droney, monotone vocals. You heard that album?

Download the album. You're not costing them money because you have no intention of buying it anyway.

The Foo Fighters one?

Yeah.

Ulver - Started off as raw, folk-inspired black metal then after three albums drastically rerouted into largely experimental work involving electronic, prog, noise, symphonic... I enjoy using Ulver as a counter-example to the whole "Opeth were the first band to make anything like modern progressive metal".

Unexpect - Again, initially very black metal, but now have diverged towards avant-garde rock/metal, with contributions from all sorts of genres, from jazz to gypsy music. More like one big drastic change than a gradual reformat over many years.

Haggard - From standard progressive death metal to "symphonic, medieval" metal implementing an entire orchestra (inc. choir): what can I say?


I'm not certain changing style from album to album is often a good thing; sometimes it's more important to develop and refine your own style than try and get input from as much as possible just for the sake of it.

Tom Westside wrote:

Yeah.

I will at some point - it'll be one of those albums I play relatively quiet in the car and see if any of it catches my ear. What's different about his singing style on this album, then?

It's much gentler, less shouty than later efforts and even when it is shouty it still sounds different. Maybe it's just the production values.

shaunography wrote:

Black Sabbath - got an actual vocalist in 1980 and pretty much ruled since then. Tony Martin, Ian Gillan, Dio and Glenn Hughes > Ozzy. (Black Sabbath is an absolute don of an album, though, and its the only one where Ozzy sounds good)

Master of Reality is their best work.

Fu Manchu wrote:

shaunography wrote:

Black Sabbath - got an actual vocalist in 1980 and pretty much ruled since then. Tony Martin, Ian Gillan, Dio and Glenn Hughes > Ozzy. (Black Sabbath is an absolute don of an album, though, and its the only one where Ozzy sounds good)

Master of Reality is their best work.

Born Again, Seventh Star, Heaven and Hell, Black Sabbath, Headless Cross...

Master of Reality has some alright songs, but the selftitled was the only 'proper' good album with Ozzy on vocals (ie, every song is good)

The best song on Technical Ecstacy doesn't even have Ozzy on vocals!

I only own Sabbath albums with Ozzy singing, the rest are imposters!

The Prodigy are also a band that have changed with the times.
Started out as a rave/dance band, i mean there still a dance band, but there style has changed alot since the early days.

that was a lame one, but.............meh

Blur strike out as making huge changes. Compare Leisure to Think Tank and it might as well be a completely different band.

Still both shit bands though lol.

The latter, oh yes. The former? No fooking way.

Spectral Knight wrote:

Blur strike out as making huge changes. Compare Leisure to Think Tank and it might as well be a completely different band.

We're talking about music here... you know... music.

r new pal wrote:

shaunography wrote:

Explanations plox! There are obviously more, but being arsed to write about more than three is a ridiculous ask. Foo Fighters never really changed for the better, though, as they've always been shit.

I thought the self-titled album was very good. The subsequent ones were nothing special, though. I hate the way Grohl changed his singing style.

although i quite like The Colour And The Shape too.

Shaunography wrote:

Tom Westside wrote:

shaunography wrote:

Explanations plox! There are obviously more, but being arsed to write about more than three is a ridiculous ask. Foo Fighters never really changed for the better, though, as they've always been shit.

I thought the self-titled album was very good. The subsequent ones were nothing special, though. I hate the way Grohl changed his singing style.

The only two songs I've heard from their debut are the two singles; neither of which were overly impressive. The last album I heard through by them was that one with All My Life on it. That album was dire. Beyond belief.

Just listen to Good Grief, Weenie Beenie, Alone+Easy Target, This Is A Call...FUCK, THE WHOLE DEBUT ALBUM and then hang your head in shame. The Colour and The Shape was a damn fine follow up too. Then it all started to go a bit wobbly. There Is Nothing Left To Lose was good, but there were a couple of retreads on there and the singles were pretty much throwaways. But stuff like Generator and Aurora were good tracks. Now...the one with All My Life on it...One By One is fucking awful. Low was a great song until it got overplayed. The rest of the album, I can't listen too. It's dire. Especially the last track. After that, In Your Honour was better but it was definately the start of radio-friendly, stadium rawk that they've been plying ever since (see: the last one).