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JJ's Bizarre Blog #38 - Perpetual Metamorphosis
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Greetings, everyone! October has rolled around and a change of seasons is taking place. Days are shortening, rain is becoming more frequent and the leaves are turning gold. Also, it’s spooky season! Always stay spooky, stay creepy and stay wacky! Now, in such a transient time, I had the idea of trying something a little different. A more loose topic to explore a phenomenon I personally find very interesting. As time goes on, it’s only natural for an artist to evolve. Some like where they are and stay in the same place for their entire career and sometimes that works out great. But others aren’t content with repetition and seek to evolve. Even if band members don’t change, people can change. Over the years, I’ve encountered many bands and artists that evolved their sound a lot throughout their careers, sometimes to the point where their disparate sounds are almost incompatible. So that’s what we’re going to explore today. Musical acts that significantly altered their sound and became something completely different. Let’s explore a celebration of musical (r)evolution and the thirst for discovery!
Let’s jump right into it with something very well known – Metallica! Arguably the biggest metal band of all time, Metallica’s drastic stylistic evolution is well known. When they first exploded onto the scene at the turn of the 80s, they were definitively a thrash metal band and became the gold standard for the genre. They were among the fastest and heaviest bands in the world at the time and they garnered a huge cult following quickly. Their first four albums are still regarded as some of the greatest of all time.
With the dawn of the next decade, Metallica released their self-titled record (more commonly known as the Black Album), which shook things up by going for a more classic heavy metal sound and a more commercial approach. They also greatly toned down their longer proggier pieces. This was a divisive album at first, but it was still high quality. After it, The Four Horsemen continued a similar sound of Load and Reload before going into a really weird experimental phase with oddball releases like St. Anger and Lulu. Eventually, they brought it all back with their most recent releases which show a return to form and a re-embrace of their classic thrash sound!
A band with a very baffling past is the American powerhouse Pantera. Now, today we all associate them with their super heavy groove metal sound, festooned with crushing riffs and breakdowns courtesy of the guitar god Dimebag Darrell. They also carry themselves in a very macho and in-your-face attitude with proud Southern undertones. So I think you’d be very surprised to learn that they started out as a classic glam metal band! Yes, really! It’s hard to imagine that these same dudes were walking around with skinny jeans, leopard print vests, big fluffy perms and makeup in the 80s, but it’s true! Sadly, I can’t properly show it to you as the glam-era albums are very hard to find, but look up the song “Forever Tonight” and listen to it while looking at the album cover for Cowboys from Hell and realize this is the same band and three out of the four members were the same on both! Truly wild stuff.
Speaking of groove metal, another titanic band from this style are Machine Head, personal favourites of mine. On their first two albums, they shattered skulls and broke bones with a powerful groovy style, sporting some of the most powerful riffs and breakdowns ever, true students of Pantera’s school. After that, their next two albums went for a very different nu metal influenced style with a hint of metalcore that was, well, a bit divisive to say the least. They seem to be returning to a similar style in their current incarnation.
They would mount an impressive comeback with their quadfecta of masterpieces – Through the Ashes of Empires, The Blackening, Unto the Locust and Bloodstone & Diamonds. To me, these are four of the best metal albums of all time, especially Blackening. All of them are marked by length progressive metal-esque songs, strong varied songwriting, some of the most eyewateringly amazing dual guitar ever and deep introspective lyricism delivered through rich and varied vocals. All of this without sacrificing the bombastic riffs and killer breakdowns that made them huge to begin with. A perfect example of how to stay true to your origins while also evolving into something unique. This series of albums is a musical peak that will likely never be repeated.
Of course, even within the relative mainstream, there are far more extreme transformations to be found. British superstars Bring Me The Horizon are probably the best example of this. They started out as a very extreme deathcore band that took the stages of the mid 2000s by storm and caused many a mosh pit during the time. Later in their careers though, they transitioned into a more arena rock oriented sound and later went full pop music with mostly electronic influences. Naturally this catapulted them into major success, but it’s a bit bizarre to see the band that scared parents decades ago now sitting on pop radio alongside Coldplay and Maroon 5. They are however showing great interest in metal again and seem to be going back to their roots somewhat, seemingly eager to win back the favour of the metal crowd. We’ll see how that works out for them.
But if you’re looking for the most extreme genre shift, in my opinion that has to go to Norwegian eccentrics Ulver. They started out during the 90s as a core pillar of the rising black metal scene, delivering one of the most iconic folk/black metal albums of all time in the masterpiece that is Bergtatt. After that, they experimented with an acoustic folk sound on the mystical Kveldssanger and then returned to pure raw black metal on...well, whatever Nattens Madrigal is.
After that though, frontman and mastermind Kristoffer Rygg found black metal to be becoming too mainstream and gimmicky, so he chose to abandon the sound completely. Since then, Ulver have released many albums on which they’ve experimented with all kinds of styles, none of which are even close to metal, let alone their black metal roots. Progressive rock, folk rock, synthpop, electronica, dark ambient, new wave, pop rock and avant-garde symphonic compositions are just some of the genres they’ve dipped their toes in. I mean, credit where credit is due, while their discography is an enigma locked within a paradox, I can always respect artists that put absolutely no creative limitations on themselves and just do whatever their heart tells them to. These kinds of tunes tend to be the most genuine.
Not all transformations are so drastic. A different good example are the Russian metal juggernauts of Arkona. At the dawn of their career and throughout its former half, they were a folk metal project festooned with tin whistles, bagpipes, balalaikas and more, with more than a hint of black metal to up the intensity. They presented epic sagas of Slavic culture in a manner that can be danceable and immersive at the same time. Undoubtedly, during this period Arkona have released some of the greatest folk metal albums of all time.
With their album Yav though (which has one of the most beautiful album covers ever), they shifted into a more experimental and proggy direction that was quite unique, but the big change came with their next new record Khram. With this, the folk elements took a back seat and they became a full fledged black metal band. Drenched in darkness and exploring the most unseen corners of the soul, their new output is undeniably amazing and they have cemented themselves as a premier act in modern black metal. However, I cannot lie, I miss their folk stuff. There was no other Slavic folk metal band that sounded like them, so I hope that soon they make at least a slight return to their pagan roots. Either way, Arkona always deliver greatness.
One genre where change is a constant more or less is progressive metal. This can come in various forms. It can be quite drastic as is the case with Swedish prog gods Opeth. During the first half of their tenure, they played a style of progressive death metal that was really like nothing else. With lengthy 10+ minute songs with pure death metal heaviness that can flip on a dime and transition into a folky prog rock section on a dime. Opeth are one of those bands that have more sonic variety in one song than most bands do in their entire discography and they became well known for their godlike songwriting prowess and uncanny ability to mix seemingly conflicting elements into a cohesive experience that many found impossible to pull off. But they did, again and again, blessing us with some of the greatest progressive metal albums ever.
But, something had clicked in them and with the release of their album Heritage, they shifted their sound completely. Now, not just the death metal but the metal elements were almost extinct and they focused on a clean and energetic style of progressive rock reminiscent of the golden classics of the 60s like Yes, King Crimson or Pink Floyd, bands that were an obvious influence to them from the start. The quality of song writing remained high, but now their sound wasn’t this unheard of blend of elements that no other band seemed able to do so naturally fans took a while to adjust. “Make Mikael growl again” became a well known running joke withing the fanbase and one that the band themselves enjoy toying with. Nonetheless, Opeth remain untouchable and remain a titan of the progressive metal scene.
For other prog bands, change is more gradual and continuous. My favourite band of all time Enslaved are a perfect example of this evolution. I won’t go into detail, as I already have a full blog about them, but here’s the short version. In the beginning, Enslaved too were a big player in the Norwegian black metal scene and pioneered the so called viking metal sound – long black metal songs with prog and folk elements, gratuitous keyboard and, of course, lyrics about viking history and mythology.
As time went on, they kept black metal as the base of their sound, as well as the Norse lyrics, but evolved into a much more refined and elevated sound that was definitively in the progressive metal realm, also entering the “more variety in one song than most bands have in their entire discography” club. While Opeth ruled Swedish prog, Enslaved ruled Norwegian prog, earning the moniker of “Norwegian Pink Floyd”. Every Enslaved album is unique and different and introduced new elements, but the core sound remains intact and you can always tell it’s them from just a few seconds of a song.
To finish the set (heh), you know who rules Finnish prog? Another favourite band of mine, Amorphis of course. I’ve also given them their own blog so for our purposes, here’s the gist. Amorphis befit their name very well, being a shapeless project for whom the only constant is change. Soon after their inception, they became a key player in the rising Finnish death metal scene, but only two albums in, started to evolve greatly. They went from, brace yourselves – death metal to death doom metal to progressive/folk metal to progressive rock to alternative rock to melodic death metal to progressive death metal and nowadays they play a varied sound that is a mix of all of the above, while still remaining true to the core that made them who they are. You can instantly tell you’re listening to Amorphis, regardless of what the song sounds like.
During my musical exploration and research into the evolution of various bands, I’ve noticed several trends that seem to repeat in the lives of many different acts. I’ll call these “pipelines” and the first of these I want to talk about is the death/doom metal to gothic/rock pipeline. In the early 90s, England’s Paradise Lost and Anathema as well as Sweden’s Katatonia and Tiamat sought to mix the heaviness and instrumentation of death metal with the slow style and dark lyricism of doom metal. The result was death/doom metal, an ice-cold, macabre, trudging sound that was brutal but also beautifully atmospheric.
Later in life though, all of these bands, as well as many similar ones to follow in their wake, transformed into more melodic gothic acts that at times leaned sonically more towards rock than metal. Their old lyrics of nature, magic and mysticism morphed into tender yet sombre ballads of unrequited love, loss and existential dread. Somehow, even though the sound was different, the underlying melancholy felt oddly familiar in both cases.
Another similar pipeline I noticed is the emo/punk to pop/radio rock pipeline. During the early 2000s, emo punk, pop punk, skate punk and other similar styles were taking the world by storm, becoming especially popular with young people and by the mid 2000s, they were everywhere. While these are different styles on paper, there was a lot of overlap between fanbases and all of these styles have their roots in oldschool punk rock, so this is why I’m lumping them together. Bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, 30 Seconds to Mars and more were just some of the trailblazers that achieved massive success in these styles. As the new decades rolled in though, almost all of them found themselves transitioning away from their angsty style and more into commercially-oriented pop and radio friendly rock. Many even exited the rock sound entirely and went fully into a electro-synth based pop sound. While I know many of their oldschool fans felt at least a bit disappointed, you can’t deny that this catapulted them into bigger success than ever. Whether the sacrifice was worth it is a debate for another time.
So there, we approach the conclusion of this journey through evolution. Change is a natural thing and its to be expected of every artist, but I’ve noticed how some bands pull this change off much better than others. I’ve noticed a few points that I believe help make this change work.
- Make the change more gradual – if it’s too abrupt and the new sound you go to is so different that there’s no overlap with the previous, you’re essentially dumping one fanbase to find another. That new fanbase may never come. If you keep the core intact and build around it, that works much better.
- Respect your origins – don’t turn your back fully on what made you who you are to begin with and don’t reject the fans that helped kickstart your career. What you did before is still a part of you.
- Play the old songs live – we get it if you don’t want to write new songs in the same style as before, stay true to what you want to do. But if you still play the old songs in concert, then both old and new fans will get what they want and everyone will be happier in the end.
These are just my observations and thoughts on this.
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Anywho, this for now concludes our exploration of the topic. I hope you found this enjoyable and were fascinated by the stylistic evolution of some of these bands. Like I said, sometimes band members change and this is the catalyst, but that’s not necessary. Sometimes, people just change, grow and develop different interests and ways of thinking, thus the music that comes naturally to them likewise changes. It’s a very interesting topic and this continuous metamorphosis is part of what makes the release of a new album so exciting. So go on and try something new and don’t be afraid to be different! Take care and stay spooky!
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