RockRoast

In my many quiet moments, I’ve for some reason been thinking a lot about bands that undergo huge changes between two releases. Not lineup changes, although in some cases that could have a lot to do with it. I mean that the music on album B winds up being extremely better or extremely worse than the music on album A. It seems to happen a lot. And today, I’m going to nominate three bands for having the biggest, sharpest, most disappointing drops in musical quality.

3. AUDIOSLAVE

Great Album: “Audioslave” (2002)
Disappointing Follow-up: “Out of Exile” (2005)

What Happened: A mellowing. “Audioslave” was aggressive and engaging, with great soaring melodies. “Out of Exile” was bland and boring, with less of a hard rock edge and a number of dry, tired, unmemorable melodies.

2. BOSTON

Great Album: “Boston” (1976)
Disappointing Follow-up: “Don’t Look Back” (1978)

What Happened: A decline in songwriting? Loss of freshness? Failure of creative energy? I’m not sure what happened. “Don’t Look Back” sounded like the same band from two years earlier, but for some reason, it’s very forgettable. Every song on “Boston” is played in heavy rotation on classic rock radio. I’ve heard a couple from “Don’t Look Back” on the radio. Every now and then.

1. QUEENSRYCHE

Great Album: “Promised Land” (1994)
Disappointing Follow-up: “Hear in the Now Frontier” (1997)

What Happened: Ran out of originality. I don’t blame them, actually. They’d already had a great career by the time they released “Hear in the Now Frontier.” They’d been around for about fifteen years and put out five or six albums, three of which (”Operation: Mindcrime,” “Empire,” and, of course, “Promised Land”) are masterpieces in my book. But after so much great music, perhaps it was only a matter of time before they ran out of great stuff to write. Chris DeGarmo, a main songwriter for the band, may have recognized this. After “Hear in the Now Frontier,” he decided to leave the band, which became the real kiss of death for Queensryche.