Actually, quite a few bands mentioned only had their first official release after 1990. Off the top of my head, bands such as Kataklysm, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Carnal Forge, Darkane, Arch Enemy, Incantation, Immolation, Sonata Arctica ... Are you saying that you weren't interested in the music of any of those bands? That is a pretty diverse list. Personally I was a bit surprised to see Immolation and Incantation because they are still releasing great stuff in my opinion.

By the way, no one is 'moaning'. They are simple giving their opinion which is what this site is all about?

Immolation and Incantation are bands I like. Both are still recording decent music and putting on decent live shows - anyone who thinks they should give it away should move on to listening to music they like. Agree on your opinion comment and this is mine. Never cared for the other bands mentioned.

Is "give it away" actually used in this context in other regions? "Give it up" is what I hear much more frequently, "give it away" is more what you would do with furniture you don't need.

Hey, I listen to Tiamat! Since 2018 I've ben trying to see them live, but I either couldn't make it, or the show got postponed. Hoping that they don't disband before I get to see them, that would be such a shame

You mean you did enjoy the Berkut years?

Apart of comparing him to Kipelov, Arthur is a talented and experienced vocalist with his own unique charisma and stage performance. He fits Aria much better than actual singer (((((

The current singer is some sort of a joke indeed... however, I'd say the biggest problem of post-Kipelov Aria is that the music turned even more predictable than it used to be. You'd think if a band changes singers, they'd try to do something more original.
Berkut is fine on his own; I liked his old work with Autograph.

This is the exact thing for me. Some have pointed to the Rolling Stones as examples of really old dudes still doing rock music, but... Have you listened to an AC/DC album?

AC/DC, while obviously nothing hardcore, is way more energetic then the Stones. A bunch of 60-70 year olds can't keep doing that for 42 years on.

Hell, Brian Johnson is close to 76, how long can he really keep going?

Perhaps we're simple old farts )) I'm allowing thought that Aria made me impressed because it was one the first metal bands (like for many other metalheads of ex-USSR) and nowadays this type of music isn't my cup of tea, that's why new material of them doesn't catch me. But actual singer is a walking facepalm (((((

WHO THE FUCK IS STILL BUYING THEM?

I know some people are completists, and I am on some things, but still!

A few bands come to mind...

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.

Yes, there are: the 15 year old mallgoths who grew up.
Sadly, after their pop era, even though Morten tried to return to his roots, he wasn't able to reach the greatness of the first 2 albums. Perhaps he should really call it quits.

Hehe, we probably are Aria was definitely one of the "gateway" bands - in the 90s, they were on TV so often )) Can't say I re-listen to their stuff much anymore either...

Vk.com showed me an advert for Dubinin's upcoming solo album, I'm now wondering if I should listen to the single or it's better avoided so as not to spoil the good memories even further XD

Just off the top of my head ...

Leave:
Satyricon

Hate to say this, but as much as I love what they did up to and including Nemesis Divina, their more recent stuff doesn't do all that much for me. Rebel Extravaganza and Volcano at least had a sort of novelty factor making them remotely intriguing and The Age of Nero had a couple of really worthwhile songs, but everything thereafter felt like a band routinely going through the motions. I am not even sure Satyr is all that much into music any more as his various business endeavors seem to consume much of his time and passion these days.

Stay:
Iron Maiden

I cannot help but feel amused by people seemingly not being able to come to grips with the fact that Maiden will never put out another Piece of Mind, Powerslave or Seventh Son. I mean, I would love for them to put out another album in that vein, but to act like their post-reunion material is all crappy and lame because it does not fit into your individual metal template is completely over the top. Their trademarks are still there and they are still artistically relevant. They have just evolved from the epitome of a NWoBHM/trad metal act into more of an epic metal affair. Not progressive metal, mind you, as that's a completely different thing. Long tracks aren't necessarily progressive, even though you could argue that some of their latest material off of Senjutsu is sort of adventurous in the sense that it eschews conventional verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus-chorus song structures. Some tracks don't even have a proper chorus any more. Anyway, it's fairly obvious Maiden are still creative and still metal, even though it's not your four-minutes-and-a-half, bang-your-head-against-the-stage "Aces High" or "The Trooper" kind of metal any more. It's perfectly okay to not like Maiden's more recent output, but to pretend like it's some sort of horrible disgrace that should result in the band immediately splitting up for good is a bit much. Take it or leave it, but they are still going strong and the only thing likely to stop them anytime soon is Father Time himself.

Leave:
Glen Danzig

Yeah, he used to be one of the best vocalists around and Danzig the band was a pretty unique powerhouse for quite some time, but age is catching up with him and his style of singing and on-stage acting simply does not age well.

Stay:
Carcass

When they reformed, some fans obviously harbored unrealistic expectations of them going back to their Reek of Putrefaction/Symphonies of Sickness or at least Necroticsim sound. Instead, what they predictably went back to was basically their Heartwork style, infused with some Necroticism and some Swansong aesthetics. Again, maybe that's not the ideal outcome for some of their hardcore followers, but it's also far from an unmitigated disaster. Individual expectations may not always have been met, but the band is still very much alive and kicking (ass).

Christ, there’s some petty takes here. Arch Enemy, In Flames, Kataklysm, Carcass, Dimmu, Dark Tranquillity, Cannibal, Immolation all still crank B+ albums. You guys just haven’t evolved like they have.

To be honest, bands like Arch Enemy, In Flames, and Dimmu are producing D+ albums at best. Although, I do agree with you about Immolation, they don't belong in this thread in my opinion. I think their last album was fantastic and one of the best albums released in 2017.

Do you honestly believe that In Flames are producing good albums nowadays? The consensus seems to be most of it is shit.

The fact that no power metal fan here mentioned Dark Moor yet makes me wonder if people even remember they're still out there. That, and the fact that the last halfway decent album of theirs was released in 2013, of course. Their last two are just impressively bad. As for In Flames, they should call it quits quickly before someone else tries to re-record yet another older (and perfectly fine) album with "updated" sounds.

True, I really do forget that they're actually still putting out albums; what a sad case.

Yes modern In Flames is great. They’re more popular than any other death metal artist. It’s only a very small consensus saying they’re shit.

I mean, In Flames are very popular, for sure, but I don't know if I'd call that a benchmark of quality by any means. Lots of terrible music is popular.

How much of In Flame's current popularity is due to their old albums, though? I can't find all numbers (and am not bothered all that much to go deeper), but a quick look shows they seemed to reach their peak more than a decade ago. Which is probably a bit past what this board would consider "classic, quality In Flames" but with still many albums that seemingly show a decline in popularity. At least going by the numbers I'm seeing. Of course there are other factors, like digitization, etc.

Chart positions, another flawed metric, also show they're less popular than they used to be in many markets (not Sweden, though).

Going by Spotify, looks like the most popular song is from Clayman, and the "popular albums" show some classics before newer material.

So maybe they're really popular, but they ride on their golden years. And yeah, popularity is not necessarily a metric of quality. I mean, Justin Bieber. Ew. (You can still like newer In Flames though, not my usual cup of tea but I don't think it's exactly terrible).

In Flames is more popular than ever. They’re by far the most popular death metal or formerly death metal artist. 1.6M Spotify monthly listers. “I Am Above” from their 2019 album is their 2nd most popular Spotify song and has 15M views on YouTube views. Huge YouTube numbers for videos from recent albums. Big concert draw in Europe playing mostly material from newer era albums.

A small demographic such this forum prefer their earlier albums.

I actually do enjoy every album up to/including "Ars Musica" (with "The Hall of the Olden Dreams", "Gateways to Oblivion" and self-titled album being my favorites) but "Project X" was utterly pathetic in every way and "Origins" was only a marginal improvement. They really do need to call it quits at this point if that's what they're going to give us.

Speaking of power metal acts that need to just quit... Virgin Steele.

True, true.

Music is still terrible though.

I'm curious, what do you guys think of Gojira's new material? Still liking Magma and Fortitude, or do you think the band is falling off?

While I enjoy albums like Terra Incognita, The Way of All Flesh, and (obviously) From Mars to Sirius a lot more, I still like the newer less-heavy stuff. I don't think they'll ever top a lot of the albums in their current catalogue, but I hope they stick around for awhile. And I read that they're talking about going heavier for the next album. That won't be for a while, but I'm excited.

Personally, I dislike it. I love the band up to and including L'enfant Sauvage, but the last two have been pretty underwhelming for me. My opinion is not shared, though, as I know a lot of people do enjoy them now, like you.

I keep lowkey wishing they would make some drastic return to their original gothic/doom roots from the late-90's, but I know it would never happen. Honestly, Enter still slaps and had some genuinely solid riffs and melodies.



Been thinking this for a while. I appreciate that Morten has been trying to keep the flame of early-2000's "beauty and the beast" gothic metal alive, but it's a very feeble flame now and it sounds as though he has just been rehashing the same material for decades now.

In the same breath, Tristania really started to lose their luster after Ashes, and especially so after Vibeke Stene left the band. Mariangela is a perfectly good singer and her joining the band had nothing to do with it, just something about the band's songwriting became painfully bland and stale over time. It just sounds like Lacuna Coil's early gothic metal material, minus the atmosphere or hooks. They haven't released anything new since 2013, and all I remember about that last album was not finding it at all interesting.

Me, for one. The run of albums from 2013-17 was pretty good and their best stuff since the Comeau era, which in turn was their best stuff since the early-mid 90s. I mean, Ballistic, Sadistic sucked donkey balls but Jeff has proved he still has decent material left in him, he just needs to concentrate on finding it rather than self-plagiarising just to crank an album out on schedule.

I don't understand why Annihilator get so heavily picked on for having 1-2 great albums and then absolutely nothing else of any value whatsoever when there are plenty of other bands who have a couple of albums that stand head and shoulders above the rest of their discography.

You underground metal elitists are real a pathetic bunch of girls. No offence.

I listen to a lot of super popular mainstream/pop music. Am I allowed to call modern In Flames terrible without being called pathetic?

Honestly curious what you expect from this forum if this is your attitude... not really a place where underground music is scorned or hated.

Alright bud, I think you need to take a nap.

Nobody here is an "underground metal elitist", and nobody is criticizing these bands for being popular. It seems like the only person who brought up popularity in this thread is you. And if you're talking about the "unpopular opinions" thread, the only person there discriminating by popularity is, again, you:

If you're gonna throw a tantrum and resort to petty and unfounded insults whenever someone criticizes an artist that happens to be popular, I don't think this is the website for you.

Dude get over self. You have no clue what your talking about.

No worries man, all insults are forgiven. I hope we may break bread over something actually important someday. Blessings.

Kid, you have 26 posts in here and you're alreay being an insufferable know-it-all dick to members of this forum, throwing your shitty hot takes around like they are stone cold facts. I don't care if you want to defend garbage like modern In Flames and Arch Enemy, hell I even agreed with your take on Carcass not deserving to be listed in this thread, but you're being such a douchebag right now. If you don't like MA's forums, no one is keeping you from leaving. There are plenty of Facebook groups and subreddits where you'll be able to talk with people who have similar tastes to yours.

Seriously. If you're going to barge-in on threads like these accusing people of "not evolving" or calling them "pathetitc bunch of girls" (nice sexism there by the way, classy) because they don't like the stuff you like, you can fuck right off.

He's clearly trolling with all the constant blathering about how all underground music sucks and is not worth your time, etc.

I don't believe any band should retire based on people wanting them to if others are still listening and going to shows. People said this about Slayer for years.

However, if I were to pick a band that desperately needs a drastic change, it's Anaal Nathrakh. At one point in time, they could have been my absolute favorite band, around the time of In the Constellation. Since then, they have released an insane 6 albums from 2011-2020, largely the same thing repeatedly aside from the awesome The Whole of the Law. The only thing I remember about Endarkenment is penises

Endarkenment was a bit more melodic, more choruses and stuff. But yeah, the rest of them are pretty similar. I still enjoy those albums though, A New Kind Of Horror is my favorite.

Me not. You know, that most important element of Aria' art is that they sing in Russian, and their poetry been written by proffesionals. Apart of music (which has a lot of borrowings from Iron Maiden), their entire mix of metal and lyrics is a very solid. That's why after all these years of digging black, death, doom and dark electro branches again and again I'm returning back to the music of childhood which are Aria, Master, Korrozia Metalla early stuff (including Alisa and Kino, who are not suitable for this site ))). Probably this is simply aging

in the constellation was amazing, but i've since stopped following them as i really didn't like the couple of albums following it (i especially remember some track with the most miserably awful guest vocals) - definitely haven't heard all the new ones, but i doubt i'd like any of them. all the albums leading up to constellation are great tho'