Are there any bands (none come to mind for me at the moment but I'm sure there are some) who put out their first record (or 2 or 3) and then evolved, as most bands do, and went very far from their original sound (think Entombed, Cannibal Corpse, etc.) and then, at some point, made an album that was beyond question a bold return to their original sound?

We often hear this from band members before the release of new material, "Yeah, I would say this is a return to our roots..." or "It's a lot like our first album," but it almost never is. I remember At the Gates saying this a few records back, but To Drink from the Night Itself was definitely not a return to The Red in the Sky is Ours. And I'm fine with modern era ATG, but why do bands constantly say things like this? I guess they must believe it on some level but I'm rarely convinced when I then hear the new record. Maybe there are elements that are similar to their original works, but never (or rarely) is it a true return to their original sound.

Anyhow, I thought of this while listening to the legendary grindcore band, Assück, and since they're no longer around and good/pure grindcore is so rare to come by these days, I was thinking how cool it would be if a band like Napalm Death did an album that was truly a return to their roots- to their original, pure grindcore sound.

The production could be modern, that's fine- I'm talking about the music itself. And don't get me wrong, ND are great and I like everything they've put out over the last decade or so, but they're clearly more death metal than grindcore nowadays. Or if you want to argue they're 50/50, fine, this isn't about quantifying percentages, what I'm searching for are bands that clearly, BOLDLY, indisputably returned to their original sound for at least an album or two, or returned and stayed there. I'd love to see Napalm Death blow people's minds by doing a modern day version of Scum or From Enslavement to Obliteration, where there's no denying it. So, for them, that would mean short, blasting/grinding songs under the 2 minute mark that are indisputably PURE grindcore, as found on their first few albums (And I know F.E.T.O has 3 tracks that are over 2 minutes but you get my point).

So that's what I'm looking for- can you think of bands that had a distinct, "pure" sound (whether death metal, black, grindcore or whatever), and then moved away from that sound, to the point where they were clearly different from where they started out, and then later returned 100% to that original sound?

One band I can think of off the top of my head is Xasthur. He's mainly known for his DSBM work, but decided to stop playing metal in exchange for some neofolk stuff. He recently dropped a new black metal album that does go back to his black metal roots, even if the quality isn't on par with the older stuff.

Paradise Lost definitely come to mind. They infamously went from slow death metal to goth metal to Depeche Mode style rock before starting to get heavier again in the mid-2000s and eventually coming full circle when they started playing death-doom again on The Plague Within. Maybe not a perfect example since their later stuff still contains some goth influence, but nonetheless something like Tragic Idol could have easily come out after Draconian Times without anyone batting an eye.

Cathedral's final album The Last Spire is very much a throwback to the sound of their debut Forest of Equilibrium, which was an intentional decision on their part, according to Lee Dorian:

Those are all bands I'm aware of but have never really followed...

It might be time for me to check out Cathedral especially, since you've got both Lee Dorian and Scott Carlson in there and the band's album ratings are overall pretty high. Also kind of like that I could start with the first and last albums, which are probably the ones most suited to my taste, and there's over 20 years between them.

Decrepit Birth. UNFORTUNATELY.

Type O perhaps loosely? The evolution from SDH to October Rust was dramatic. But their last offering - Dead Again - brought back many elements from SDH almost as if they closed the loop.

Agree on both PL and Cathedral mentioned earlier.

I would say Cryptopsy, since their homonymous (2012) album is a get-back to the old sounds of None So Vile and Blasphemy Made Flesh.

Most thrash bands from the 80s changed their sounds through the 90s, some with better results than others, but they all nearly came back to their original or something similar to it

Came here to say Testament. Drago above me has the right idea. A lot of thrash bands in the 90s mostly either went groove, death metal-lite, or something like Alice in Chains or Soundgarden, before eventually making the right choice and coming back to thrash later on.

I can't speak for most thrash bands but that does seem true of, probably the greatest thrash band of all time, Slayer. Definitely not a return to their original sound (on 'Show No Mercy'), or even sophomoric sound ('Haunting the Chapel' & 'Hell Awaits'), but they did return, thank God, to more or less their later thrash foundation. I'd argue they returned more to 'Seasons in the Abyss' than 'Reign/South of', but yeah, those last two with Hanneman, 'World Painted Blood' & 'Christ Illusion' were generally pretty solid, I think, especially considering how far they'd kind of drifted at one point.

Now this is an album I made need to check out... If it captures even, say, 80% of the ferocity of those legendary first two then I'm all over it. But is it actually a return to their original sound? The reviews for this album, of which there are a lot, seem quite mixed on that.

I don't think I agree with this. I mean, they did go back to death metal after toying with deathcore on The Unknown King, but I wouldn't say their 2012 s/t is all that close to their sound of BMF and NSV. Both Books of Suffering EPs expanded on the post-TUK sound, and sure it takes back elements from early days Cryptopsy, but it's not really comparable.

However, I don't think that anything out there sounds anything like the first two Cryptopsy albums. They are in a class of their own, and I don't think anyone could ever reproduce that unique sound and atmosphere. So I guess that 2012 onward Cryptopsy is as close as it gets from it? Maybe? But I wouldn't call it a return to their original sound. Especially considering the fact that the main songwriters and guitarists from BMD and NSV have not been in the band for ages.

Most thrash bands returned to their old style during the resurgence, some made really good stuff (Sodom and Destruction for example), some less (Slayer and despite me enjoying Death Magnetic, its a pretty mediocre thrash album)

Definitely not In flames despite popular belief by many easily impressed fans earlier this year!

I would say Hypocrisy, for one. Catch 22 was quite different than anything they'd released up to that point. The next album saw them return to their "4th dimension" sound. Since then they've stayed the course with some minor experimentation.

And to be true to the real point of this thread, Metallica would have to put out (or have put out) something that was beyond question in the same ballpark as Kill 'Em All or maybe RTL (if we're cutting them a little slack). But, sadly, they never have. Also, I agreed with Slayer getting "kind of" back to their roots a few posts back, but really, their true roots would be Show No Mercy or Hell Awaits, and they never did anything like either of those (or HTC) ever again. I don't know that they were capable of repeating Show No Mercy even if they'd wanted to, because I don't think Tom could still scream like that when he was older. Plus their sound on SNM is very youthful and pure. It would've been cool though if they had.

Back to Metallica though, does anyone here vaguely remember Lars saying something along the lines that St. Anger was going to be a "return to their roots" and "like Kill 'Em All" back around '02-'03 before it came out? I'm not 100% sure on this, but I swear I remember reading that in an interview somewhere at the time and obviously being very excited about it.

It was said in a review, I don't know about an interview.

During the making of St. Anger they would post behind-the-scenes videos on their official webpage, and frequent references to what bands were serving as inspiration were named. Linkin Park and System of a Down I specifically remember name dropped.

St. anger is not very good at all obviously, but seeing the whole documentary really put it in perspective for me that it could have only came out the way it did, and is probably their most important album when it comes to being a band, meaning I really got the feeling that it actually brought their friendships a lot closer.

Too bad it's still pretty fuckin bad, but I think it's far too genuine of an album for me to truly hate, Death Magnetic is definitely worse just on a pure conceptual level

I like this take and, though it's been a long time since I saw 'Some kind of Monster,' you're probably right. And yeah, I'm not a fan of the album either

I can't think of ANY bands that actually went back to their early sound - that is the first album or maybe the first couple. There are quite few that get back on track after some experimentation, but it's never the exact style as on their very first records. And it's fine by me, I understand that this is virtually impossible and also unnecessary.

The aforementioned Paradise Lost and many thrash bands were what sprang to my mind at first, but none of those have actually returned to their very early style, as already discussed before. Some have gone back to their most successful and trademark sound though - more or less, but it's usually not the same as the early sound.

Yeah, it's probably impossible to replicate the sound and/or songwriting from decades earlier. (Assuming you'd even want to, anyway.)