by Sebastian Kluth
Par kluseba
Dear Readers,
A few groups come to mind when I'm thinking about bands that have decreased in quality over time.
Manowar should have concluded its career with commercially successful Warriors of the World and its subsequent tour, perhaps followed by a series of farewell concerts. Instead of pulling the plug back in 2004 and leaving as legendary band that has influenced many others, the group recorded dreadful new albums, rerecorded parts of its classic albums and flooded the market with pointless live records while the band's imagery and lyrics have aged dreadfully. To make matters worse, their former drummer committed suicide and their former guitarist was arrested for child pornography possession. It's hard to imagine a worse downfall than what Manowar has experienced throughout the past decade and a half.
Six Feet Under was never a decent band but its first few albums were still tolerable. The group should have pulled the plug back in 1999 because once it started its dreadful Graveyard Classics series back in 2000, the band has become the metal genre's laughing stock, releasing one dreadful output after another. Founder and singer Chris Barnes is obviously not taking care of himself and his vocals have declined steadily with every single output. Bands like these are the reason why some people still believe metal is just disorganized noise and one can't fault people to think that way when listening to Six Feet Under.
Running Wild was an influential heavy metal band inspired by pirate imagery that has released some classics back in the eighties and in the nineties. Founding member, guitarist and vocalist Rock 'n' Rolf pulled the plug back in 2009. However, he revived the band only two years later, released a lukewarm comeback effort followed by three incredible stinkers. Sometimes dead is better as Running Wild should have rested in peace throughout the past twelve years.
Within Temptation once started as commercially successful band meandering between symphonic metal and occasional folk inspirations with releases such as Mother Earth, The Silent Force and The Heart of Everything. After successful experiments with orchestral and acoustic versions, the band should have pulled the plug back in 2009. Instead, it continued and shifted towards completely forgettable mellow pop rock music, covering the likes of David Guetta, Enrique Iglesias and One Republic. Collaborations with Xzibit and Jacoby Shaddix and the likes followed. The band doesn't have anything in common with the group that impressed so many in the early years of the millennium.
Korrozia Metalla was once a pioneer speed and thrash metal band from the Soviet Union, playing legendary concerts and publishing rough demos throughout the eighties before releasing a series of energetic studio records in the early nineties. In the mid-nineties, the band suddenly shifted towards odd underproduced industrial metal sounds with dreadful far-right lyrics with albums like Computer-Hitler, White Wolves and Goddess of the Morgue. This band should have pulled the plug all the way back in 1993.
Dishonourable mentions go out to lame-ass hard rock band Böhse Onkelz who should have stayed disbanded after its farewell shows in 2005, Nightwish that has become more and more bloated as time went by and should have called it quits after releasing its own film Imaginaerum back in 2012 and Metallica who are still playing decent live shows but whose recent material was either completely unimaginative or consisted of horrible experiments gone wrong as the band should have retired after its movie Through the Never back in 2013 without ever collaborating with Lou Reed beforehand.
However, some bands have also had surprising recoveries after long draughts. This goes to show that one should never lose hope and hold on to the dreams. Keep listening to new music to have an open mind and support the artists that you admire in these difficult pandemic times.
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