I think we should be more open about music in general

It’s hard for me to explain it. I’m talking more about the spiritual element of art, that’s the best I can describe it. Like when you listen Dimebag shred, you can tell he’s doing that not only to make himself happy, but to make other people happy.

That really that you’re looking at it from a family perspective. You can’t play with the feel that dimebag has when you don’t like playing what you play. That there are other people who like that too kinda makes sense because you’re never alone with liking something there are always other people who are gonna like it too!

Bands aren’t obligated to stick to the same sound. They are just people who enjoy making music for themselves and if they want to change their sound well let’ them change it. Either they are going to fail or they are going to become even bigger. Their previous albums aren’t going anywhere so if you don’t like the new sound,there is always the old stuff just waiting for you to listen to it.

Okay, so after thinking about it, I’ve figured how to describe it. I’ve had a fever over the last couple of days, so my thought patterns weren’t up to the usual.
But bear with me on this. Metal for me isn’t just a genre. It’s a lifestyle. It’s basically one of the characteristics of me as a person. From the music I listen to, to the way I dress, to my sense of humor, to the people I socialize with. I’m not a religious person, but I think that this connection to metal music must feel like a closest thing to having a religious experience. So imagine if you’re a devoted Christian and suddenly one of the elder Christians in your group you’ve been influenced by becomes an atheist. How would you feel at that moment? Betrayed? Disappointed? Pretty much something like that. And that’s exactly how I would feel if a metal band that I have listened to for years stopped playing metal. I know that @Ids isn’t a metalhead, so he doesn’t have a connection to this genre as much as I do. But metal is a sacred word in my language, one of the only ones haha.
I hope this explains it better and that you guys understand it.

I’ve been listening to BFMV for like 10 years and these new songs… they are a little bit more heavier than songs on Temper Temper. Repetitive formula, clean verse with some scream, chorus, near the end of the song heavier scream and that’s all. I love The Poison, SAF, Fever, even Temper Temper has songs i’m coming back to. And Venom from beginning to the end is amazing. I don’t have anything against changing style but it sounds like they had no good plans where they want to go with this album. They can do definitely better than this with Padge, new drummer, Jamie and Matt. I will listen to this new album but i don’t have high expectations.

This convo is a bit past relevant but I didn’t get around to reading it until today. I’d say everybody here is correct to a point. I definitely understand Daniel’s analogy in the prior post and I would agree with it. I would feel kinda let down at first if a band suddenly switched up their style. But, the key word there is “at first”. I got flak in a few online forums because I wasnt a huge fan of The Stage when it first came out. I liked the title song and Exist. And for about a year that’s all I listened to. Then I saw them in concert this past January and absolutely fell in love with The Stage. I didn’t like what they put out because I didn’t give it a chance. And that’s how I think it generally is for most people. I get some things are just 100% unlikeable to some people (Like me, I can’t stand country and I get shit from my country friends for it).
Personally, I think if an artist wants to change their style they have all the right to do so. Art is a way of expressing self, and with a band they’re expressing collective self. If they release what their fans only *want* they’re gonna be constraining themselves to what might not be their self any more and it’s gonna seem forced. Art is never good art if the artist doesn’t enjoy it will all they are. So I think in a sense it’s almost selfish to demand a band create music solely for for their fans and not what they love. There are always exceptions obviously, like bands pulling a straight 180 and producing under a whole new genre, and that would be fair for some fans to feel disappointed. But at the same time, that artist will now pick up a whole new group of fans who do like what they’re doing. I guess to summarize, I see it like this:
A band is a group of people making music, and they take this music and say to the world ‘Look what we have made’. And some will say ‘I like what you have made’. And it’s up to the artist to simply keep producing what they love and it’s up to the fans choose whether to enjoy it or not.
I apologize if a lot of this is rehashing what others already said, I more or less skimmed most of the replies. This has always been a hot topic among my circle of friends because all of us like a unique niche of music but almost all of us meet in the middle with metal (I like to tell them you’re welcome because I always send them new metal and they love it).
To throw in quick something in an edit the first time I remember hearing of a debate like this was when Born of Osiris used a 7 string guitar in The Discovery. Hardcore fans hated it but I loved it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Btw just to clarify, I’m more than open to bands changing it up on every record. All of my favorite bands are like that, and I guess that they are my favorite bands for a reason. It’s just that I have a problem with bands doing a complete “rebranding” of their sound. Avenged still continued to play metal after Waking the Fallen, albeit a lighter one, but it’s still metal. So I don’t have a problem with changes like that.
I think most people have a line where they’d go “well that’s just a bit too much”. Everyone will say they’re open to change, but are they really? I wonder how many people would actually love it if A7X decided to do a house techno album, you know? Haha.
It’s not the subtle changes that I’m against, but rather the extreme changes that make no sense within the context of the band’s discography. As I said multiple times throughout this discussion, balance is everything.

I guess because im older i understand about change..as far as the stage i thought it gave a7x a chance to relax and spread their wings and show how deep their writing really is"i cant wait to see whats next".people change and so does music...think of how boring it would be if everything was the same all if the time..thats my .02

Daniel Sobota said:

Absolutely. But as I said, most bands that drastically change force that change upon their fans and have this sort of unfriendly relationship with them. I yet have to see a band that does a really different record and isn’t hostile about it. Usually it’s “if you don’t like it, we don’t need you” rather than “it’s okay if you don’t like it, maybe you’ll like the next one better”.
Even Chester was flipping off people who didn’t like that latest LP album at some live shows. I mean no disrespect to him because we all know what happened, but that wasn’t a very professional thing to do.

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I understand your point but i dont see it as forcing us..they dont ask our opinion on anything else why would they ask our opinion on which direction the new album should go..im a creature of habit and dont really like change but i do understand that things change

John Robinson said:

I guess because im older i understand about change..as far as the stage i thought it gave a7x a chance to relax and spread their wings and show how deep their writing really is"i cant wait to see whats next".people change and so does music...think of how boring it would be if everything was the same all if the time..thats my .02

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Ooh yes, the versatility of acts like john mayer, avenged sevenfold and the beatles really is what attracts me to them if I'm honest.

Of course, it all usually goes through. Filter of the artist (I don't see avenged make a dubstep record) but it being different record from record is usually the charm of an artist for me.