I don't think I know a single person who kept listening to Leaves' Eyes after Liv left, not really sure who that's for anymore.

I haven't felt the need to listen to Alestorm or Amon Amarth's last 3/4 albums, because honestly wat the fuck are they gonna do that I haven't already heard? Still when they appear at fests I guess they're at least fun and seem to try to put on a show, so not as utterly pointless - or as woefully embarrassing as say Manowar or Venom.

We all agree that Metallica peaked in the 80's, but I don't think they should disband. Hardwired to Self-Destruct is a decent enough album, with a nice production work a creative process that feels genuine and authentic on the part of the band. They are still enjoying themselves, and this album, while it would have benefitted from being shorter and trimming out the fat, feels unique enough and is a nice addition to the band's discography. Death Magnetic, outside of the horrible production, was a pretty decent record as well.

Some might not like their newer output, but they aren't stagnating. They are also still a very solid live act, so there is no good reason for them to stop at this point.



Marco leaving Nightwish would have been a good moment to lay the band to rest.

I dont believe any artist should just retire assuming people are attending their shows , or buying their merch/music. Bu there are indeed a few who, IMO, haven't created anything worthwhile in years.

Ozzy is at the top of my list. His last truly great record was released back in 1988!
Glenn Danzig should hang 'em up., as well. He's descended into self-parody territory now.

And I truly hope we never hear from Iced Earth or that side project of his. Goodbye and good riddance.

ANNIHILATOR.

One GREAT album, then a LONG series of crap to OK/Good albums (though I certainly haven't heard `em ALL).

TIME TO RETIRE.

I kind of agree with you on that one. I read somewhere that Waters is planning on releasing a mountain of albums in the next few years, or something like that.

There are groups that kind of recover after a bad album. A good example is MORBID ANGEL, who returned with a solid album (Kingdoms Disdained) after that monstrosity from 2011.

I felt that "Skeletons" Danzig's cover album, was a clarion call for hanging it up...except the follow up "Black Laden Crown" was everything that album was not and was a excellent return to good form to my ears.

I will admit I have not heard the Elvis cover album after that, but my interest in Elvis is one compilation and only a couple of songs out of that...Unlike the Beatles, I've come to think half of his draw was persona related and the rest was only musically on a very few hit songs. So if I see it I'll probably get it...but I'm not going out of my way to order it.

Another couple of strong candidates:

ANVIL - I guess they have been going for so long they wouldn't know how to give it away. They seem to get a bump from that documentary a while ago, but it felt mostly staged in my opinion.

DEF LEPPARD - Enough said.

Big time agreement on this one, I don't know why they even bother trying to write new songs anymore, it's clear as day that they are recycling older rock ideas in the most boring fashion possible and trying to cover it with an overly processed production. They had a few decent songs on Euphoria, which were all self-plagiarized rehashes of stuff from Pyromania and Hysteria, but when I hear anything else they they put out between 1993 and now, I begin feeling nostalgia for stuff with more integrity like "Let's Get Rocked" (and yes, that's hyperbole, I know that said song was the most cringe-inducing thing to come out of Def Leppard's catalog prior to Slang).

I have been listening to metal for over 16 years and I still have not figured out what a "norsecore" is.

Venom really needs to call it a day. They haven't made anything great since their first three albums at least, and as soon as they stopped being extreme for their time they just became old news.

I'm very tempted, and sad, to nominate Maiden.
But rather than hang it up, to stick to doing short tours with completely different setlists. I for one would much rather they focussed more on rescuing deep cuts from their discography that they may have never or very rarely played live, than go mad with ever more over-the-top stage shows and IMO luquewarm albums.
Mind you, this is totally subjective of course - they have more than earned their right to do whatever the hell they want.

I saw Sonata Arctica mentioned but I disagree, I think they just changed their style more than anything else, which isn't the same thing as bands that are tired and are phoning it in. They're more melodic rock/metal than power metal at this point. But some of their post-Reckoning Nights albums have really strong songs - Juliet, Deathaura, Flag in the Ground, Blood, X marks the Spot, The Devil's Cage... They probably could have written a dozen more derivative power metal album, but went another way, normal that'd lose fans. I love the new stuff almost as much as the old stuff, but no band really fills the void that they left when they stopped making straight power metal.

I feel like Anvil squandered a lot of the good will they got from the documentary. Not in a "they're bad people who don't deserve recognition" way but rather in a "people forgot that this band kinda sucks" way. Aside from Juggernaut of Justice being a surprise highlight, every subsequent album has been the same uninspired schtick that gets a temporary pass because they don't know when to quit and they seem to be back to playing the same low status clubs as the rest of us. For all the talk of what the documentary did for their popularity, nobody ever talks about what they've been doing after it.

Speaking of documentaries, Bobby Liebling of Pentagram can't retire soon enough after all the shit he's pulled in and out of the band. I still can't believe how many people in the doom scene give him a pass.

Iced Earth, Jon ran his 2 riffs into the ground 20 years ago. Oh well, the band might finally be dead thanks to Jon taking part in a failed coup.

Sabaton. To be fair, never thought they were something special to begin with, but they milked their one idea dry

Black Label Society : See above. Zakk is a one-trick poney

Danzig should have called it after 4P

Amon Amarth could have ended after With Oden On Our Side.

Disagree with everyone saying Iron Maiden. They're not playing their 80's style anymore, but they're doing their own thing, and they have a big enough fan base backing what they're doing. It might be a stretch to call a lot of today's Maiden metal, and it might be polarising here, but that's completely fine.

Metallica are in the same category as Maiden. Hardwired did have a few good ideas, and Spit Out the Bone really is a great song.

Def Leppard and Venom are two good examples of bands that just need to stop releasing new albums. Their tours are almost exclusively their old shit anyway, and nobody at all hails their most recent stuff as their favorite records, let alone good records.

Spot on. Modern Maiden is a national treasure, IMO.

In Flames should have quit after Come Clarity, but you could make a good argument that they should have after Clayman.

Once such a great band, now...god, just ugggg.

Yeah, Maiden and Metallica, even though neither will top their classics, are both doing quite good or even excellent stuff now, a lot better than many peers. Some old bands do get it right.

Dark Tranquillity, Carcass, Cannibal Corpse. There's just nothing there and there hasn't been for a while. They should just stick to playing the good songs live and that's it.

I agree with you about DT. Their last few albums have been really average. You probably have to go back to 'Fiction' in 2007 for anything worthwhile. At this stage, it might be better to disband DT and move on and form new bands or different projects with some new ideas. They have definitely been coasting for more than a decade now.

I hail Venoms' ''HELL'' record as my favorite record by them...

Sirenia's latest was kind of disappointing, but that's because they'd had a bit of a revival with Perils of the Deep Blue-Arcane Astral Aeons. Maybe they can't top the first couple albums again, but they could at least get back to the level they were at just a few years ago.

Illdisposed has kind of become the AC/DC of groovy but powerful melodeath. Their last album I was obsessed with was The Prestige, but I still enjoy their new material, even if it's kind of samey. Bo is still a ferocious vocalist. This is a blasphemous opinion around these parts, but I get out of them a lesser version of what I think other people here get out of Bolt Thrower, or what the metal mainstream gets out of Amon Amarth. It's just a reliable, solid formula that always works. They aren't releasing classics anymore like most of the first eight were, but I still like their modern sound, they haven't fallen into the depths like In Flames, Virgin Steele, etc.

Darkane never released a bad album, and I would love for them to follow up their previous one.



Fiction is a rather rare example of one of a band's best albums being a decade and a half into their career, but I still like everything they've done since. They've also never released a bad album, and Atoma is another classic. I'll just never get why those albums are disliked and yet stuff like Maiden's latest gets praised, where not only is it phoning it in, it's still leaving the phone off the receiver while you take a lengthy nap. But they do side projects anyway, Stanne for example is currently fronting both Grand Cadaver and The Halo Effect. And I'm hoping some time for Reinholdz and Amott to gel will take them to new heights again, both have done some stellar work in their earlier careers. They could conceivably pull a Soilwork and release arguably their best album later into their career with mostly newer members if everything hit right.

Their latest one was still very good but it was a slight step down from the last few. I don't think they've lost any of their aggression yet. However, if we take into account the ages of the band members, I can't imagine they've got too long left in them.

I still think they create good music, though, even though each album is pretty much the same. I'm willing to give them a few more albums before hanging it up.

I'm starting to feel like the only person that really likes dad-prog Convulse.

Huge Tiamat fan to this day. Edlund actually tried to end the band, but... they've turned into this nostalghia touring machine. Classic rock for the 35+ metalhead crowd. Well, at least he's alive.




A better comparison would be Jou!morphis, y'know A decidedly similar string of predictable yet solid records.

Not even remotely comparable genres except that both have guitars and are generally metal... I've never liked any DT I've heard frankly.

I would've agreed maybe 10 or so years ago, but the last few BLS albums have been pretty good (and The Blessed Hellride is ace). Most of his mellow material is top notch too.

Maiden

It's funny you say that, because early Dark Tranquillity is heavily inspired by Maiden, they even covered "22 Acacia Avenue". Really, that's the basic formula for most Gothenburg melodeath, is to take the Maiden template, make it heavier, faster, darker, and more aggressive with harsh vocals. With DT there's even the hint of more complex, almost classical-inspired songwriting at times like them, and the more prominent role of contrapuntal basslines like Harris does. They've incorporated different influences later on, but the earlier albums are way more similar than you think.

True, I did think of that after I wrote that post so touche. Maiden is a whole other world of quality in every way, on both the new and old albums, for me personally though. Most of the Gothenburg stuff I've heard just falls completely flat for me because harsh vocals do not sound good over such melodic music for me, and then the music itself is just also not compelling to me.

Def Leppard - They never had a huge amount of credibility in the hard rock scene anyway, but they're just a Vegas act now, and what's with Phil Collen and Joe Elliot playing onstage shirtless trying to pretend they're still 25?

Judas Priest - Tipton sidelined from performing full shows due to medical issues. No Downing. In the live arena, it's Halford solo at this point. Very much time to call it a day now. Firepower was actually a pretty good record and it would be wise to make that their last and draw a line under their output with some dignity.

AC/DC - No Malcolm, and just how long can the others keep going, realistically?

Deep Purple - After 2011 or thereabouts, they stopped being an act I'd make a priority to see live. Now What?! was unbelievably dull and a clear indication that they should hang it up right there.

Metallica - Well, they should stop trying to make thrash records, as the results are rarely convincing. Best option would be to be true to themselves and make Load part 3, then do a couple of tours with Newsted back in the band, as their live power was really affected by his departure.

Ozzy - He's just worn out.

Maiden still have it live but are probably getting close to the tipping point given how energetic their shows are.

Damn. What a terrible take... Cannibal Corpse's new album is extremely solid. Not only is it good, but it was also generally acclaimed by their fans and the death metal community in general. You might not like new CC, but this is a terrible take. Same thing for Carcass. Decibel just placed their new album at the number 1 spot for their best albums of 2021, and a lot of people enjoy their post-reunion material. You could argue that it's safer and that these two bands don't make their sound evolve as much as they used to from album to album, but these two bands are nothing like oyu described.



Their sound doesn't evolve that much, but every new output still has it's own sound, while retaining the quality song-writing and riffing that is typical of Cannibal Corpse. Their newest output, for instance, is a lot thrashier then previous records. If you have not noticed it, try focusing your attention on the thrash metal elements in there.

I kind of miss the chunky and meaty bass sound of Kill/Evisceration Plague, but Violence Unimagined is solid nonetheless.

Sadly, this will never happen..

Jason has himself said that he physically can't play stuff like that anymore. Such a shame, I always felt his voice blended very well together with James on stage.

Arch Enemy. After Doomsday Machine they're playing one sterile boring song.

Aria. After Berkut left the band it becomes absolute zero.

Satyricon - honestly does anyone encouraged by their last 4 albums as well as they did before Age of Nero?

Incntation and Immolation - for both of them - you can buy one album, it will sound like any other of their discography, it's enough.

you've got some serious brain damage if you can't hear the difference between dawn of possession and majesty and decay

Ozzy's concerts have now been postponed to 2023. Fucking 2023, he will turn 75 that year. Assuming he's alive, in what condition will he be in 2023, having Parkinson's, being Ozzy and all that? Sharon, would you just let your man retire?

Yeah, this is the band that came for mind to me too - their current vocalist has absolutely zero charisma and a voice that I'm frankly just not fond of. Not a fan of the last couple albums at all, though I still get plenty of enjoyment out of all the Liv Kristine ones. Also, the Liv/Leaves' Eyes split is only rivaled by the Tarja/Nightwish split in terms of drama... just fucking wow, lol.

Sorry for Immolation - forgot to mention that I'm talking about few last LPs. I have Failures For Gods and Harnessing Ruin - it's quite enough for me.

A lot of bands mentioned in here comprise of acts who either stopped releasing material I like around 1990 or never did release anything I was interested in. Instead of moaning about how said acts should give it away I just ignore them. It works.