Let’s get one thing clear right from the beginning. A great number of metal fans have always resented bands that decide to explore, expand, and mature, as if their Amish views expect musicians to stop right at the point of advancement that they deem holy, with everything coming after being tantamount to heresy. Or worse, the change is viewed as some affront to the fan base, which is just plain arrogant.
In actuality, most drastic stylistic changes can be loosely placed into one of three categories, and while this type of argument has been presented many times in the past, let’s review:
1. The Inspired Maturation
In which a band is truly inspired to evolve, and does so successfully. Examples include Opeth’s My Arms, Your Hearse, Paradise Lost‘s Icon, Megadeth‘s Rust in Peace, and just about every massively influential album ever.
2. The Honest Misstep
In which a band is bored with their current sound, attempts to change it, but falters. Sticking with the above bands, examples include One Second and Heritage.
3. The Sellout
In which a band seeks commercial acclaim and will alter their sound in whatever way necessary to achieve it. Examples include about every Megadeth album that followed Rust in Peace (Countdown to Extinction still rules, but it was an arena job if I’ve ever heard one).
Only a few groups were used as examples to show that the motivation for change may vary, depending on the stage in a band’s career. Fan ire and revilement is really only deserved for a very obvious case of the third choice. The other two are at least honest, and the first should be celebrated, whether or not you enjoy the direction the band has taken.
Why repeat a worn out lesson? Some recent Swedish hullabaloo, that’s why. With their sophomore albums, Tribulation, Necrovation, and Morbus Chron made moderate to extreme shifts in their sounds, thrilling many a listener (like this guy; bias stated), and ruffling the feathers of many others. Their debuts sported caveman-friendly death metal, ranging from the near-Sunlight heft of Breed Deadness Blood and insane rippery of The Horror to the slight weirdness of Sleepers in the Rift. When listening to these albums, fans should hear kickassery first, a nod to the old school second, and potential third.
With the mention of potential, it’s time to call logic to the witness stand. When a band comes along and is able to make something so tried-and-true (or worn out) really great again, odds are that said band is pretty darn talented, and expecting them remain contained within a set of rules is rather naïve.
Our three subject bands just happened to evolve faster, and more suddenly, than many expected. Necrovation invited in a ton of prog and melody, but still remained the death metallest of the bunch. Tribulation might as well be a different band, shifting to an expansive blackened death sound on the thrilling, holistic Formulas of Death. And Morbus Chron, by virtue of hardly even being death metal anymore may have made the biggest shift of all. But let’s be serious, if you didn’t think the roots for something bigger were way obvious on their debut, then you’re out of your Vulcan mind.
It might be hard to imagine, but maybe, just maybe some musicians get into this here game to inspire not only others but themselves, and by simply being able to hear potential, listeners ought to expect some evolution. Pyrrhon’s second long player is another great example of a band truly discovering themselves as they grow, but because their early work was already too weird for the average denim-vester, it won’t cause a similar stir. What will pop some forehead veins is when a band like, say, Belgium’s Possession – another recent darlin’ of the underground – decides to cross-pollinate Fates Warning with Immolation or something similarly wackadoo. I hope it happens. I will draw mana from tears as they run down corpse-painted cheeks.
This is not to say that there is anything wrong with wanting more of the same thing. If either King Fowley or Bobby Blitz took a sudden neo-prog turn, I would be certainly checking the skies for signs of bad planet alignment. Just keep in mind that when you discover a new band that is extra talented, don’t get upset if they “betray” you by growing as musicians. When it is clear that the band’s evolution is both inspired and not for commercial gain, drop the resentment. It is not only unfair, it is illogical.
