Title says it all. I'll let everyone else do the heavy lifting on this one as I'm struggling to think of any except perhaps Therion, who I was never a huge fan of but remember liking their symphonic works better than their early death metal. I'll probably chime in later when I think of others.

Sentenced, haha. From old school boring as fuck death metal to glorious melodic blackened death metal on the sophomore. Then changing again to dark, reflective heavy metal of sorts on Amok, improving further still...

Ministry and Pantera come to mind for me. Their original style they played was fine, but let's be honest, they definitely won't have been as iconic as they are now had they not switched genres.

Darkthrone and Marduk played solid Swedish-styled death metal, but they would not be as iconic if they hadn't switched to black metal.

Anathema and Katatonia found their voice as artists when they dropped most of the metal elements and became alternative/progressive rock.

Moonsorrow and Arkona (the Russian one) played straight up folk metal but they became better once they started playing black metal with folk elements.

Sigh became better when they left black metal and became an avant-garde metal band with tons of outside influences.

Deceased going from straightforward death metal to whatever unique thing that they are now!

Granted for Anathema, their metal material was never quite on par with the other members of the Peaceville Three, but I strongly disagree with Katatonia. Sure their later material is solid, but they released some killer death doom. There's a reason with Dance of December Souls and Brave Murder Day have been reviewed so much here and that they maintain such a good average score.



I'd argue that the avant-garde elements were always in their sound. Scorn Defeat is not exactly your typical 2nd wave black metal album. I'd also argue that they never dropped the black metal elements. They are still there in the mix, although not as central as before. Scorn Defeat is also an absolutely amazing album. I'm glad they explored their sound more and more and didn't stick to the sound of Scorn Defeat, since the real quality, the real strenght of Sigh, beyond just writing amazing music, is their versatility and just how ecclectic their sound can get.

Decrepit Birth. Boring brutal tech death on their first album leading to outright Death worship on their second and third albums which were massive massive improvements.


And then they went back to their boring brutal shit.

Corrosion of Conformity. I didn't even know about their earlier punk days until years later. Their 90s stuff is great.

Sentenced and Anathema are the obvious calls. Enslaved got better with Monumension and Below the Lights, not sure if getting into prog counts as changing genre.

Type O from a Carnivore (with synths) clone to the goth rock industrial synth pop psychedelic doom metal punk behemoths they eventually transitioned into.

How did Ministry change? I thought they were always industrial.

I feel the opposite to you. I prefer their first and newest albums.

I'll go with Red Harvest. Their first album was some old school thrash metal album. After that they switched it up completely and became industrial metal, which was a hugely positive move for them, in my opinion. HyBreed is still one of my favourite albums ever.

Beyond Terror Beyond Grace's first 2 albums were grindcore, so imagine my surprise when the 3rd album was atmospheric death metal. An unreal change that sounded awesome. Sadly they split up soon after that, so we never got to hear any more follow-ups.

The band's debut album "With Sympathy" is actually new wave. Since then, though, the band has shifted into a industrial direction.

I dunno how anyone can, Polarity and Diminishing were just too good

I see you.

I fucking love early Type O. Thank you for reminding me to listen to Are You Afraid / Gravity.

My answer to this, Sarcofago and R.A.V.A.G.E./Atheist.
Sarcofago's debut bores the fuck out of me, and Atheist's early material stuff does too. However, Sarcofago's "The Laws of Scourge" and Atheist's "Elements" both excellent albums.

Damn. I remember their first being mid-tier Suffocation worship and then the following two being fun and ultra melodic tech death.

Fall of the Leafe was a very rare band who I thought improved going from melodic black/death to rock, doing a much better job at it than Sentenced imo. Their early melodic death/black albums had terrific melodies but going to clean vocals added much needed emotion. Underrated band.

Amorphis I'm on the fence about. I love Tales but don't mind their rock albums, though nothing after Tuonela and Am Universum has really grabbed me.

Non metal: The Steve Miller Band went from Blues/Blues Rock to AOR/Arena Rock and improved MASSIVELY.

I mean if just switching black metal styles works then Karg. Their ambient black metal is mid at best, their post work on the other hand is some of the best out there.

I know, right? INRI is often being put on a pedestal like some sort of the album to go to when you want to listen to some good early thrash/black; I find it boring, unappealing and unexciting to say the least. I much prefer Sarcofago when they transitioned, first with their wild ride on Rotting and then of course on The Laws Of the Scourge seeing them transition once more.

Strange you mention Elements though. Most people find it a lesser album compared to Piece of Time and Unquestionable Presence. Not familiar with Atheist's previous incarnation, so I cannot compare, but regarding Sarcofago, you are indeed spot on.

Rotting Christ - they successfully traded early grind style with atmospheric black metal, and that defined them until present day.
Solstafir - Early Viking black metal changed to ???, hmnn post metal? But it suites them way better.

I had no idea RC used to play grind.

For some reason that comment made me think of Bolt Thrower - I'm not sure you'd call that a genre change but there was a definite shift in style between Realm of Chaos and Warmaster, the latter establishing the style they're known for. Reviews for RoC are higher though so maybe people prefer the earlier style.

The most important change from Realms of Chaos to Warmaster is that they stopped using blast beats.

That's correct. Same sound, minus the blasts. Realm of Chaos was the second and last album on which Bolt Thrower introduced blast beats. They did not change style or anything.

While not as prominent, Warmaster still had blast beats. The biggest change from RoC is that the the tuning went from the spaghetti-string level A up to C# and pretty much stayed that way for subsequent albums.

Napalm Death went from grindcore on their first two full length albums to death metal on Harmony Corruption. Harmony Corruption is the best Napalm Death album.

For me Harmony Corruption is one of the most boring, uninspired, faceless, devoid of individuality, by the numbers death metal album ever created. Napalm Death, while not my cup of tea, did stuff far more interesting throughout their grindcore years, as far as I'm concerned. Some would argue even that Napalm Death stopped being Napalm Death with Harmony Corruption.

Yeah, this is like the "Reek of Putrefaction is the only good Carcass album" opinion.
Only on the Metallum board.

I mean, Deathspell Omega went from average black metal to something divine, although it's still kinda the same genre

Ulver made a complete genre switch and they remained great

Edit: wrong thread.

I’m with Required on this one! It’s the only album I like from Napalm, though I have massive respect for their Grindcore material. And yes, Reek is the only good Carcass though again, massive respect for their talent to change genres.

IIRC, someone on YouTube said they saw Ministry around the time that MIATTTT tour, and saw several new wavers in the seats, obviously fans of the With Sympathy album. After the second song, they all got up and left.

Im just imagining these people just eagerly waiting to hear "Work for Love", and what they got was "Thieves" instead.

Savatage had ups and downs no matter what, but the highs on Edge of Thorns and Handful of Rain were so good that I think it does kind of count for this. Sophisticated exciting melodicism.

Tygers of Pan Tang. Wild Cat is an Nwobhm classic, but they really found their sound with Spellbound, when they recruited Deverill and Sykes.

I'll tell you one thing the general consensus is that Death did this starting with human and yeah that's not really true at all

Voivod changed drastically but I think angel rat and outer limits are still both killer albums

Therion was the best answer I had but already mentioned so...

Nocturnal Rites went from a few ho hum death metal demos to becoming a really solid power metal act.

In that case you have to include Rush, from Led Zeppelin clone to prog gods.

Katatonia's never really changed a lot between records though, the very different place they started with vs what they became 30 years later was gradual. I guess the switch between growls and cleans between BMD and Discouraged Ones is often brought up, but instrumentally those albums have a pretty similar sound.



Ulver makes complete genre switches almost every album .