Lightning, and Puppets are two of their best albums.
To tl;dr my earlier post, I think they learned the wrong lessons from The Black Album, and by the time they figured it out, their time had passed.
Now they’re another “undead” band that still goes through the motions, generating albums and touring primarily to their established fan base, but who are almost entirely irrelevant in terms of the greater music industry/scene. Much like Loverboy, Foreigner, Steely Dan, etc…
I saw a documentary back around the time ReLoad was coming out and Jason Newstead said, “People said we sold out when they heard the Black Album. And my answer is that we did. We sold out every stadium on the tour.”
I hold that the Black Album is amazing, but it definitely sent them on the wrong path, trying to make more rock-ish albums with shorter songs. I find Load downright pathetic after their previous albums.
Yeah, I always thought their best approach would have been to stick with The Black Album’s level of metal vs. rock, and maybe even pull back a bit into their metal roots without necessarily losing fans or anything. “Enter Sandman” was a huge hit, and it was very much metal, albeit more radio friendly than much of their earlier output. But other songs on the album were in line with earlier songs in most ways- “Through the Never” for example.
They lost their youthful energy and rebellion. But instead of allowing b their music to grow as they have, now it’s faux youthful energy. And band either dies young, it lives long enough to become a dinosaur in Chucks on a skateboard with a backwards ballcap that says Rad! on it.
Bowie and Prince and Bjork alone have legitimately preserved their youthful energy. Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel are the rare artists who gave allowed their music to mature as they have. That’s pretty much it, as far a major headline acts. Every other rock act I can think of either quit in their prime, or became the Beach Boys.
(I know there will be others mentioned; just going on what came to mind while jotting this)
You mean Bjork, right? The other two died a few years ago. I’d argue that Prince’s music evolved and matured quite a bit as well.
But overall yeah, I think you’re right. And the maturing route is probably the most reasonable one, albeit one that may not play well with audiences- from what I understand a bunch of older acts are perpetually bombarded with requests for popular older stuff when they want to play their newer stuff. Imagine how irksome it might be to get pestered to answer questions about, or to repeatedly play songs you performed say… 30, 40 or even 50 years ago in some bands’ case.
The alternative is just becoming a zombie band who trades off their former fame; I’d be surprised if the crowd at a contemporary Metallica concert is teenagers and twenty-something metalheads, it’s more likely to be their parents!