Objective (the band has changed)
Kamelot
Ever since Tommy joined, I feel like they're in a slow decline (with the exception of
Silverthorn, which is legit in my top 3 Kamelot albums, along with
Karma and
Epica). I still found something enjoyable even on
The Shadow Theory - it was the last album that was the final nail in the coffin, I absolutely hated it and I haven't yet relistened to it. I don't even really know why, bit it felt like... Imagine Dragons (and I don't mean merely the millennial whoop choirs, more like it reminding me of a thoroughly chewed-through bubblegum from the bottom side of a school chair). I still love the early work and hope for Khanelot. You can't kill the dreamer.
Dream Theater
I'm writing this even though I liked the last album, but it's still a shadow of my former fandom. Again, the Mangini era started strong (ADTOE was phenomenal) and I even like DT12 and
The Astonishing to a significant degree, but the flaws started to be obvious there.
Velocity felt really insignificant, it was like a collection of outtakes and
View felt completely rotten to me. I'm not sure if I'd still hate the last one, need to revisit it someday, but overall, it all just felt like meaningless meandering, like edgeless exhibitions, i felt a bit like.. .yeah, AI-made. Throw into AI "what a DT album would sound like" and AVFTTOTW might be the result. Like I said yesterday, they seem to be a bit back on track, but we'll see how this goes.
Nightwish
Again, I rather liked the last album and I have a soft spot for Troy (unless he is singing), but overall I feel the dichotomy between having Nightwish up to 2011 as my top 5 band ever and being rather clocked out over any of the recent era work. And especially since Marco left (although he was already barely present on EFMB and HN). It feels like a project, moreso than a band, and I just don't find it engaging. The magic is gone and I don't think it's just Tuomas switching from being the
puer aeternus and The Ringmaster to being this pseudo-sage of Mother Gaia and most of all, a teacher and a preacher, but I don't thnk it's mere coincidence either.
Rhapsody
Again, up to before Turilli left, Rhapsody are my top 5 band. After that, both Staropoli and Turilli have released quite a bit of good stuff, but nothing truly spectacular and with Turilli now wishing to become Einaudi v2.0, I find this to be possibly the lowest point of their story. But I still have hopes for a reunion, once Turilli's money runs out and he realises he needs to play the
Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness riff once again.
Stratovarius
This happened quite a while ago, Tolkki is in a really poor state nowadays and the rest of the band are having a really good roll, but the magic that have captivated me up to, say,
Elements is gone and nothing they are releasing nowadays, good as it may be (and it usually is, in fact all things considered, it's really high quality power metal stuff) doesn't enthral me as it used to.
Symphony X
I suppose their refusal to release anything along with their refusal to acknowledge anything from their past made me kinda lukewarm towards them, even in retrospect. I mean, the old albums are still great, but again, I don't consider myself a "fan" anymore and I rarely put them on. I feel like they're trying to will themselves out of existence and at least in my mind, it's working. They definitely lost the momentum for me.
Genesis - not after Gabriel left, but after Hackett left. Once again, one of my favourite bands of all time in their former period, nearly completely stopped caring about them afterwards. But it happened even before I was born, so it probably doesn't count.
Even as a huge Reload fan, I think
Metallica have lost their spark right after
The Black Album, never to find it again. Every album after that is either meandering, tired or doesn't sound like them at all. They're listenable and I enjoy quite a bit of their discography, but they don't elicit the fanatical fandom and the TULLICA!!! feel.
Avantasia,
Sonata Arctica and
Dark Moor, whom I stopped being a real fan after the first era ended are more of a bonus mentions, because the eras when they had the spark with the rest of their existence are kinda incomparable.
Subjective (it was I that probably has changed)
Besides entire genres I've left behind (death metal, thrash metal, jazz etc):
Iron Maiden
They are still among my "favourite bands" for historical reasons and I still love
some of their work to no end, but after 2016 or so I found out I'm replaying them less and less. I still like the reunion era the most, so it's not anything about them in particular, in fact Hell on Earth is one of my favourite songs by them and in metal in general, possibly. I'd also never decline to hear AMOLAD or
Powerslave again (did so relatively recently), but after having them in my life for so long, I just feel like the spark is somewhat gone. With Nicko now gone, I will probably never go to see them again live, but I wouldn't feel the urge even besides that. I think the Hindu believe we are given a certain amount of breaths in our lives, I suppose we might be given only a certain capacity for the Maiden Gallop.
Hevy Devy
I can't exactly pinpoint the moment when, but with the new releases which I can't even seem to keep up with, it just feel really superfluous. I suppose Devy is very ... idiosyncratic, very recognisable, very specific and you can oversaturate by him more easily than with others. This is probably the case since I feel even his previous works have been tainted a bit in retrospect - I was never the hugest fan (there was always something missing for me to become a "true fan", although I can't really put my finger on what it was), but I genuinely liked him. Nowadays, I feel rather reluctant to put on even
Terria and
Synchestra and
Ziltoid and all the other albums I liked. I suppose you can't unring a bell and can't unjump the shark, maybe?
Neal Morse
I am technically still a fan and this case is trickier, since the good stuff is interspersed throughout the discography, with some of his best stuff being released relatively recently, but after he and Portnoy parted ways and he released yet another singer/songwriter album and another project with the Resonance and yet another now with Cosmic Cathedral, I just gave up and threw my towel in the ring. I mean, with him being this prolific it's a small wonder he actually mostly released good stuff until now, but I feel really burnt out as a
listener, I can't imagine how he as a creator isn't. There's the musical, which isn't
bad but it isn't astonishing either (heh heh) and the worship albums and like a myriad of other things and I'll just keep
?, Sola Scriptura and the Neal Morse Band albums in my rotation and occasionally put something else on, but I'll probably keep my distance (and I also probably won't be starting the commented discography that I had already promised twice on this forum in the foreseeable future).
