Bands with potential that they never fulfilled

Annihilator is a very mixed bag indeed, and Alison Hell is awesome. There's a cover of Hell Bent for Leather on 'Set the World on Fire' if I recall, which isn't too shabby. It's been a while since I listened to it but I seem to remember the self-titled album in 2010 to be pretty decent as thrash goes. Hmm, I think I need a refresher.
 
I'd go with Guns & Roses, who were awesome with Appetite, but pretty much became an exercise in self-indulgences every sense, especially once it became the "Axl Rose" show in the mid 90's. They could easily have dominated the hard rock scene of the 90's like Metallica dominated the metal scene, but Axl's emotional problems kept the band from really fulfilling its potential.
 
Iced Earth
 
Gates of Ishtar comes to mind. Their first two albums rule. Really too bad they split up after the third (which had great production but lesser songs imo).
Their music was a fantastic mix of melody (guitar work) and aggression. They had feel for melody and harmony like early In Flames and added an edge of At the Gates-like aggression to it. The second album (pretty different sounding from the first) was produced by Dan Swanö, he also played some piano on it (on second track below; first track is from debut album).
 
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Omen : Warning of Danger is one of my favorite albums ever. I love the singer and the bass player. The few albums they released after that are not as good, to say the least.
 
I know that band. I have a CD laying (I think it's The Curse) somewhere. I quite like the music but didn't like the singer that well to be honest.

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The singing on Battle Cry was quite terrible, but on Warning of Danger I really liked it. The production has never been very good though.
 
Alestorm.

The debut album was incredible in every way. Production was perfect, and songs weren't all made in the same mould, like on the last album, for example. Every album that followed it was worse.

Although I obviously didn't expect a band with pirate vocals to become the best ever, I still expected more quality :P
 
I know Kobain died, but Nirvana didn't really seem to be going anywhere before his death. In fact grunge didn't really feel like it was going anywhere by the time of the mid 90s.
 
Mr Chippy said:
I know Kobain died, but Nirvana didn't really seem to be going anywhere before his death. In fact grunge didn't really feel like it was going anywhere by the time of the mid 90s.
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Except of course, y'know, Pearl Jam. :innocent:
 
I was never a big fan of Pearl Jam. I accept they remained successful throughout the 90s though. Were you a big grunge fan?
 
Mr Chippy said:
I was never a big fan of Pearl Jam. I accept they remained successful throughout the 90s though. Were you a big grunge fan?
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I wasn't even around in the '90s actually. :P Seriously though, I'm first and foremost a metal fan, and then all the other rock genres tie as second. Grunge is alright, Alice in Chains is pretty good, and Nirvana too on occasion. Personally, I just really like Pearl Jam is all. :D
 
A band who I feel never fulfilled their potential is Trivium. As a 15-year old they were one of the first Metal bands I listened to. Their second album 'Ascendancy' made a big impression on Metal, whether you loved it or hated it, and they were supposed to be the next big thing in Metal. They opened the main stage at Download in 2005 with what is probably one of the legendary Donnington Park performances and from then on they should have gone on to bigger and better things. A year later the vocal style had changed and they had their collective head up Metallica's collective asshole. They were underwhelming when they supported Iron Maiden in 2006 and not much better on their own UK tour a few months later. Gojira were actually one of the support bands on that tour and I was a lot more interested in them. Trivium's third album, 'The Crusade', was a massive disappointment and an attempt to be the new Metallica. It backfired on them quite badly and I don't think they play anything from it anymore.

I have a feeling they were badly advised by people at Roadrunner Records at the time. The label wanted them to be the next big thing in Metal and probably encouraged them to big up Metallica in every interview they gave when a couple of years earlier they'd cited In Flames as being a major influence. Trivium could have gone on to headline Download festival if they'd been better advised, but instead they just stayed as a middle-of-the-road modern Metal band who no longer make an big impact on the genre. It's a shame really. I guess they're probably making the sort of music they want to make now, not that I've taken any interest in them for ten years, and a bunch of 20-year olds who are suddenly thrust into the limelight probably aren't going to make the best career decisions.
 
Black Wizard said:
A band who I feel never fulfilled their potential is Trivium. As a 15-year old they were one of the first Metal bands I listened to. Their second album 'Ascendancy' made a big impression on Metal, whether you loved it or hated it, and they were supposed to be the next big thing in Metal. They opened the main stage at Download in 2005 with what is probably one of the legendary Donnington Park performances and from then on they should have gone on to bigger and better things. A year later the vocal style had changed and they had their collective head up Metallica's collective asshole. They were underwhelming when they supported Iron Maiden in 2006 and not much better on their own UK tour a few months later. Gojira were actually one of the support bands on that tour and I was a lot more interested in them. Trivium's third album, 'The Crusade', was a massive disappointment and an attempt to be the new Metallica. It backfired on them quite badly and I don't think they play anything from it anymore.

I have a feeling they were badly advised by people at Roadrunner Records at the time. The label wanted them to be the next big thing in Metal and probably encouraged them to big up Metallica in every interview they gave when a couple of years earlier they'd cited In Flames as being a major influence. Trivium could have gone on to headline Download festival if they'd been better advised, but instead they just stayed as a middle-of-the-road modern Metal band who no longer make an big impact on the genre. It's a shame really. I guess they're probably making the sort of music they want to make now, not that I've taken any interest in them for ten years, and a bunch of 20-year olds who are suddenly thrust into the limelight probably aren't going to make the best career decisions.
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I think people just slowly realized that Trivium were a pretty damn talented band with nothing new to offer. I like Trivium, I've seen 'em a couple times and dug them quite a bit. However, even going back to their early albums, there's nothing truly special going on. There's great riffs, great playing, even some good hooks (which they tried to focus on later to diminishing returns in musicality), but nothing grabs me in their music and keeps me interested. They manage to ride the waves of what is popular while also keeping their sound pretty rooted in a throwback style, thus never pleasing old school fans nor interesting new school metalheads enough.
 
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