When did [insert band here] lose their spark for you?

Ah... and there's In Flames, of course. Yet unlike many old school fans I liked their 2000's run, I even think half of "A Sense Of Purpose" is pretty good. On the other hand, what followed was IMO a spree of four of the feeblest and "WTF is this?" records coming from a band I liked. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending, since their last record was a huge and pleasant surprise. I mean... It's no "Whoracle" or "Colony", or even "The Jester Race" but, other than these, I think it owes little to nothing to the remainder of In Flames discography. So yeah, after "A Sense Of Purpose" I avoided the band like the black death, but "Foregone" brought me back.
 
Iron Maiden. Yep! Sorry kids. They never lost it live, even to this day. But on album, everything after Brave New World lost that certain spark. Some albums were quite ok (AMOLAD, BOS), but a far cry from that revelation that made them so special. Others were simply awful (FF). I am not saying they suck nowadays, but the thread is called "lost their spark", and I think this is true for Maiden....

... and pretty much every other corporate Metal band. Megadeth? Good riffs, but polished, perfectionalized, edgeless, boring after the reunion.
Metallica? Lol, don't get me started. Lost original spark after 1989. Then lost the entire rest after 1996. Every beginner band releasing 72 seasons or Shit Magnetic would completely fall under the radar. No one would have cared about Hardwired if it were released by any other band.
Slayer after Divine Intervention? Not bad, but just.... boring. Kreator after Cause for Conflict. Manowar after Louder Than Hell. Helloween after Hansen quit.... all plastic nowadays. No teeth.
Queensryche is one of the very few exceptions. They lost their spark completely with Chris DeGarmo leaving, but fully regained it when they finally fired Mr. GrandioseEgo aka Goeff Tate. Accept also got some of the balls back after Dirkschneider was gone. Priest also still got some spark left, but as I never was a big fan to begin with, I don't care that much.

These days I almost exclusively listen to underground bands in Death, Thrash and Doom Metal. They are hungry, motivated, sometimes naive. Corporate Metal mainstream acts are just playing too safe.
 
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karljant said:
Ah... and there's In Flames, of course. Yet unlike many old school fans I liked their 2000's run, I even think half of "A Sense Of Purpose" is pretty good. On the other hand, what followed was IMO a spree of four of the feeblest and "WTF is this?" records coming from a band I liked. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending, since their last record was a huge and pleasant surprise. I mean... It's no "Whoracle" or "Colony", or even "The Jester Race" but, other than these, I think it owes little to nothing to the remainder of In Flames discography. So yeah, after "A Sense Of Purpose" I avoided the band like the black death, but "Foregone" brought me back.
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In Flames lost it already after Whoracle.
 
I wouldn't say lose their spark as much as "Didn't rise to the expectations I set out for them" - Muse.

Some 10-15 years ago I honestly thought they were going to be the next Queen. I was blown away by Knight of Cydonia when it came out as a single back in 2006 and started following them since that album (Black Holes and Revelations). Their debut was too-much Radiohead for my taste but I fell in love with Origin of Symmetry (2001) and Absolution (2003). They made a step forward into rock-opera kinda stuff ("Resistance" 2009) and when they said their new album would have elements of dubsteb (they already did these short journeys into other "genres") I thought they were gone. But damn, "2nd Law" (2012) is to this day an amazing album (it only has two dubstep songs, luckily). By then, they were already a stadium act, beloved in the UK, broke into the USA, and started doing bigger arenas in South America and Australia. Most importantly, each album had at least a single or two which topped the charts and appealed to "mainstream" audiences.

And then came "Drones" (2015) and it was like.... Muse "trying" to sound like Muse?! Honestly, nothing about that album (except that short instrumental part in "Reapers") sounded like them and by the time the next one came out ("Simulation Theory" 2018) it was like they were trying to come back to the "experimental" side with synth-electro-rock or whatever, but it just came across as shallow. Their last one "Will of the People" (2022) sounds like a watered-down version of Drones. It seems like they found their formula 10 years ago and just stuck with it.

Shame. They were a really interesting band to follow as in "What will they come up with next"
 
Spambot said:
I wouldn't say lose their spark as much as "Didn't rise to the expectations I set out for them" - Muse.
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Liked them till "Black Holes". After that it's not that I think their music's quality decreased, but it somehow lost appeal to me.
 
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