Metal Reviews

When exactly would you say what used to be among your favorite bands "jumped the shark"? For example, do you think Metallica jumped the shark with Load? Do you feel Megadeth jumped it with Risk? And so on.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Burzum jumped the shark with Filosofem. It's absolute blasphemy, I know, but I've never liked that album. There's nothing wrong with minimalism, but the riffs on Filosofem aren't catchy enough.

That's the only Burzum album I like lol... his vocals on the other ones make me lol too hard and totally ruin their atmosphere.

As for jumping the shark.. basically none of my favourite bands have, although if The Mars Volta keep going down the whole "classic rock" path that they seem to be heading down then I guess Amputechture could be considered that.

Metallica jumped the shark with ...And Justice for All. Not that it's not a decent album, but that's the album where they began to abandon the attitude that got them there in the first place.

I rather liked Amputechture. It had some good vocal melodies, which I always find appealing.

I liked Amputechture a lot, but Rapid Fire Tollbooth from Omar's latest solo album (they've said it'll be on the next TMV album) is kinda awful... so if thats the direction they're going in then I'd consider Amputechture the "turning point" or whatever.

Stratovarius jumped the shark with their S/T album.

I disagree AJFA was still an awesome album regardless on that one exposure with MTV with the video One that still was a pretty damn good Metallica album.

If you had to pick one album that they jumped the shark then they did it with the black album and more so with Load.

I'd say they jumped the shark with Elements 1 & 2, 2 mostly.

Evergrey jumped the shark with The Inner Circle and offered their worse album with what followed.

Sonata Arctica are jumping the shark with their new one.

I'd go as far back as Infinite. Technically they've gone downhill since Episode, but Visions and Destiny were almost at that level at least, whereas Infinite marked a much more severe drop in overall quality (nevermind Hunting High and Low is actually my favorite song of theirs).

One I think most of us can agree on: Iced Earth after Burnt Offerings. No further comment necessary and it's a far too common discussion on metal forums anyway.

Testament after the debut if you ask me - New Order had too many interludes, Practice was just plain weak-sounding, Souls of Black uninspired and inconsistent, Ritual slow and boring, Low and Demonic completely different in style and just awkward for Testament and The Gathering, while possibly their first ever step in a positive direction, just damn inconsistent and utterly overrated. Also add Exodus and Flotsam and Jetsam to the list of bands that went severely downhill after the debut.

Annihilator have actually jumped the shark several times in their career, but by far the worst instance of it is when "they" (Jeff Waters) recruited Dave Padden of vocals.

Def Leppard after Pyromania - I don't know if Ken's around to tear me to shreds for saying this, but Hysteria is just too damn overproduced, stiff and poppy for its own good and dear God don't even make me think about their albums after that one.

Running Wild: either the Masquerade album or even as soon as when they started singing about pirates; opinions vary on the subject but those are the two most common ones I think.

By definition though, jumping the shark is basically using gimicks to try and keep a sinking ship afloat, so I'd say that Stratovarius' S/T may be the best one listed so far.

LOL Def Leppard jumped the shark at least 3 times with:

Hysteria
Slang
X

They go from NWOBHM with thier first 3 albums to pop metal with Hysteria and Adrenalize then they go alternative/grunge like with Slang then they just go to pop rock with their last album X.

I say they probably hold the record for the most jumped sharks.

Hmm for me actually Amputechture saw TMV going up to a whole new level of greatness. I'd kind of forgotten about them for a while but when I heard that I remembered why I loved them so much.

I'd say the Gathering went off the rails with their last one.

Megadeth made the jump on Youthanasia - good album, but you can see (hear) it was all set to go wrong.

Nightwish on Century Child. Chug-alug guitars. Less operatic vocals. Pussier lyrics.

If Dominator wasn't so awesome I'd have said Neon God was whe WASP jumped.

Manowar didn't just jump the shark on Louder than Hell onwards, they pretty much assraped the poor thing.

Rob Zombie, post White Zombie.

Motley Crue with Dr Feelgood.

Twisted Sister with Love is for Suckers.

Ozzy showed signs of pussying out on Ozzmosis, then totally pussied out after that.

I'd honestly say they've been going downhill since Too Fast for Love; Shout at the Devil is to me almost as good but not quite and everything afterwards is generally mediocre with only a handful of great songs.

Oh, and an utterly indisputable one: AC/DC after Back in Black.

I totally disagree with you, Century Child was an extremely good album better than wishmaster that I got so fed up after a while.

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