I remember tons of hype in certain corners about these bands being "the next big thing". A decade or more later no one ever seems to discuss their music at all or recommend them to anyone. I know some bands have broken up or aren't very active but I see a lot of other inactive bands that people still enjoy.

Just my observations. Agree/Disagree? More to add to the list?

December Wolves (some of these guys went on to Extinction Agenda, who were a great retro thrash band. But no one talks about them)
Imagika
Scariot
Into Eternity
Zero Hour
Outworld
Seven Witches

The only response I can give to that list:

Yeah I don't think I've heard of any of those bands either. Then again. I wasn't into metal a decade or more ago, so that might be why.

The name Scariot sounds familiar, though. As does Into Eternity somehow.

In Flames

Even if they have not been relevant for over ten years straight still manage to play sold out shows with setlists such as this one:

Bullet Ride, Where The Dead Ships Dwell, Leeches, The End, Alias, Only For The Weak, Cloud Connected, The Truth, Through Oblivion, The Quiet Place, Paralyzed, Deliver Us, Take This Life.

Setlist that they've played in their last Montreal show.

Not only are they now totally irrelevant in terms of overall music quality, but they manage to ignore three of their best albums (Jester Race, Whoracle and Colony) and barely play anything from Clayman, and still go sold out. So basically these guys have been producing shit for more then a decade now, but they also seem to be totally okay with shitting on their own legacy and on their one fans of the first hour by ignoring all of the material that helped them get recognition from the melodic death metal scene.

So yeah, there are still people who care about bands that are not only way passed their prime but who drop turd album after turd album for ages.

Remember that band Temple Of Blood? Yeah, me neither.

I'm not talking about bands whose quality has dropped off a ton since their prime, that would be almost every metal band.

I used to see people recommending this stuff online and talking about how great their new albums were and now .... not a word about them.

People into metal for only 10 years or so may have missed all these bands entirely.

I really enjoy "Buried in Oblivion" by Into Eternity, but they've changed up their sound and lineup so much since it's hard to keep track of what is even going on with the band. Their current vocalist has been in the band for three years now, but they haven't released any music with her. I'm hoping that they do though, because she sounds fantastic in the Order of Chaos. Tim Roth strikes me as being similar to Jeff Waters in that he can create some pretty damn good music, but can't do so consistently, nor can he keep a consistent lineup together (And both are Canadian if that means anything. Damn Canadians).

I remember people always saying that other people were saying that The Sword was going to be the next big thing, but I never directly heard people say that, if that makes sense. I thought that they perfected their sound on Warp Riders, but that must have been a fluke since everything since has been pretty boring.

I care about Akhlys, apparently they were pretty hyped last year, now not a word on the forums here and I don't see much rising YouTube views on the videos unlike, say, Batushka or Mgła. Anyway, this band play pretty trendy, "occult" BM but they're quite amazing in some aspects actually. Pleasant surprise.

That was a good joke. Thank you for that.

I wouldn't know what the Metal community would by and large be praising as the next big thing, principally because, I mostly explore older stuff.

Good call! Yeah, they opened for Metallica, didn't they? And then .... no one talked about them.

Power/prog just isn't what's hip these days. Doesn't help that many of the bands you've mentioned haven't released anything new in nearly a decade. Some bands like Anubis Gate still get a little bit of discussion just because they're still going.

EDIT: You could probably add Twisted Tower Dire, Communic, Power of Omens, and Desultor to the list too.

Into Eternity faded into obscurity once Stu Block jumped ship for Iced Earth, I think. They seemed to have all the momentum going for them until then, and he does have a pretty distinct voice. Maybe the hype will pick back up if they put something new out soon, who knows. I know quite a few people in my area who are still pretty huge fans.

I cannot comment on any of the other bands as I have not heard a note of music by any of them in the first place.

Desultor is also a good addition to the list as the guy above me mentioned. Seemed like everyone was going nuts for their "extreme metal with clean vocals" gimmick, but the hype was completely gone by the time they dropped their full-length. Maybe everyone was just too busy gawking at By the Hands of the Devil by Satan's Host instead because it did the gimmick way better?

I guess you can throw in White Wizzard too. Except White Wizzard was even then, just okay. After the debut they de-fucking-railed really fast and all of that "potential" was really just a farce.

I remember that. Even then they were really boring. So you can ape Iron Maiden. What else?

Evile. They're the alpha and omega of this trend.

I don't agree In Flames belongs on in this thread. They're still commercially successful and heavily hyped. They also haven't written good material since the Clinton presidency, but that's beside the point.

I can remember multiple forums hyping Mitochondrion as some band that was going to be a contender in the underground, about 5 years later I seldom see discussion about Ben anywhere but NWN.

Yeah never heard of those bands.

In what circle were they toted as the next big thing? Some obscure magazine or internet radio station?
Into Eternity sounds like complete ass so I'm not surprised they were thrown under the rug. And the rest have the staying power of a one joke comedy band. Safe /uninteresting metal done infinity better by the bands they're trying to imitate.

This is a *great* thread IMO if for no other reason than I would love to take it back to 2003 and show people how no fucks are given whatsoever towards Into Eternity now. I think they or their label bought them space on 3 or 4 BWBK comps in a row? That was dedication, but they got onto Century Media and did some biggish tours. Now?

Everything I always heard BAN supposedly being is what December Wolves, for me, already was and they were better too. That band though fell apart because of the personalities involved.

Zero Hour was super popular with the Progpower set in the early 2000s and I feel like there's a real possibility a dude I know from the amusement park hobby may have acted as a "sponsor" for them to play there. I'd have to go look it up. I don't really dig any of that stuff any more, but if you were really excited about Spiral Architect, it was music you'd like. Outworld, Seven Witches, and Imagika really had no effect on me because my interest was/is elsewhere. Scariot I have no recollection of at all.

Just to add to this list:

-Scar Culture. CMR band who I recall being part of the worst matched tour in American history (Enslaved, Electric Wizard, Scar Culture, Macabre, and Diabolic). One full length record which they toured on constantly in search of an audience before breaking up. It garners a whopping 15% from one review in the Archives. LOL

-Theater of Tragedy. Obvious reasons why.

-Skinlab. Continuing to pick on Century Media bands, but then they were like a pseudo-major for this music. Machine Head's dunce cousin that was supposed to be the new Pantera.

-Faith or Fear. Exodus clone at the tail end of the thrash trend, released and pushed hard by Combat

-Andromeda. Extensions of the Wish was a power/prog classic at the beginning of the 00s, but I feel like its been years since I heard their name come up.

-Norther. The new Children of Bodom, brought to you basically by Children of Bodom!

-Ram-Zet. "Experimental black metal" gone horribly awry

-Bal-Sagoth. :cringes:

-Alabama Thunder Pussy. Relapse band that would probably be a critical darling if they came around a bit later.

There's a bunch of others where I honestly don't know what if anything people know of them now. Does anyone talk about Fu Manchu? There were real attempts to get them on the radio when being on the radio mattered.

^this

Demiricous, anyone?

I remember December Wolves!!! They were one of the few American black metal bands worth a shit back in the 90's. Til Ten years is still what i would consider a USBM classic of epic proportions. I used to talk to Devon Smails on soulseek four or five years back. He's a humble guy and he really had no plans on continuing the band, if I can remember correctly. I never liked anything they did after that album Completely Dehumanized was good,but it was a complete 180, kind of what Satyricon did) but check out Til Ten Years, it's aged well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B3lUpI0lA4

Good call on Andromeda, twisted tower dire, and demiricous!

Demiricous was better than lamb of God though, I guess they just didn't tour regularly and crap out albums fast enough: the secret of success in the metal scene

Another one I just thought of: shadows fall. Anyone go back to those old albums and still enjoy them?

Thought these guys would have hit their stride when they had Kyle Thomas on vocals. A bit too early for a renaissance. Had they stuck it out, and continued releasing albums they might have done really well.

iwrestledabearonce

Intolerable "lol so random and wacky" grindcore band that got some hype in 2008. They now appear to be releasing serious navel-gazing albums that nobody listens to at all.

Nargaroth has to be one of the biggest cases: i don't know if it happened only in my country, but around 2008 they were often considered one of the most important band in the genre, and often name dropped as essential band alongside Mayhem, Burzum, Immortal.. and it's been a lot since i've even heard their name, and when it happened it was to mock them: time seems to have really taken it's toll

Also 2008-11 were the dark years of the bedroom DSBM bands infestation: i remember a good number of people naming as best bands ever stuff like Thy Light, Happy Days, Wigrid, Xasthur.. again, time had no mercy with a good number of these bands!

Remember this band that Roadrunner was pushing at the beginning of the 2010s as the next big thing? Mutiny Within. They went AWOL for a while and then they came out with that video peddling the idea that they were victims of music piracy. It just came across to me as them being upset that they didn’t sell as many records as they expected to.

“He revealed that music piracy had been the downfall of Mutiny Within, with the debut album only selling around 10,000 copies since released, and the album being shared and pirated at least 100,000 times” – Chris Clancy, vocalist (from Wikipedia)

But this was around the time when things were changing online and more people were beginning to take the opportunity to explore the music and each album in full before deciding to lay out some cash. Not everyone who downloads the music, or streams the music as is now the case I guess for a lot of people, is necessarily a fan of the band, or committed to making a purchase.

That is a band I remember having a short lived buzz and then a huge backlash for being unoriginal. I actually liked their debut album, pretty decent Slayer knock off with harsh vocals, but their second album was really bad. They switched out the growls for tuneless Tom Araya styled shouting and lost most of their balls in the process.

There was some prog-metal metal band with a dude named "Arthur" in it that used to get hyped to death on all the nerd video game message boards back in the day because he would post on them. I can't remember for the life of me what they were called though, but no one ever mentions them anymore from what I can tell.

The Sword, Three Inches Of Blood, and Daath are other bands I used to hear a lot about, along with that Shadows Fall, Chimaera, All That Remains crap that used to get some play. Those bands all fell off the Earth more or less, and good riddance.

Grindcore? Intolerable, godawful ear- and eyesores, yes, but grindcore? Anyway, on par with stuff like Bring Me The Horizon, big time yikes here.




*nodding in approval* "The dreaming I" is a good album; actually, I've never ordered an album as quickly as this one, being merely seconds into the first song and already having fallen under its spell. The atmosphere as created by their musical approach is quite something and it will last in the years to come.

Very good thread. A lot of good bands have been came and gone after only one or two good albums. This is my list of memory:

Agathodaimon - their first album still shakes walls of my apartments at least once per month. Never seen any response bout them on MA forums.

Helltrain - absolutely underrated death'n'roll band with a huge potential. All three albums are solid and catchy.

Diabolique - perfect mix of gothic metal and dark rock in vein of Dreadful Shadows and Elusive made by Necrolord (no need to describe who's that guy). Forgotten by everyone as I see.


Neglected Fields - these latvian guys were hope of progressive death metal scene in the most difficult period for that genre (end of nineties). Three perfect albums... then they vanished like they never existed.

Riger - I do really love that vicious Germans! They played sympho black metal in very aggresive yet melodic manner with poisonous vocals. All their albums are unique and well done. Anyone remember them nowadays?

Dont want to waste your time with my own relentions, just see that list, perhaps some of you will remember these great bands and give' em another chance

Forlorn (Nor)
Mephistopheles (Ger)
The Moaning (Swe)
Diabolical Masquerade
Ebony Tears
Disbelief
Havayoth
The Black League
Soulreaper

I still listen to Imagika from time to time, other bands have caught up on the whole "heavier power metal" thing since they died, but I think they were a pretty good band. The fact they've been broken up for half a decade and never had any ubiquitous hits is probably the reason they never come up anymore, I mean, the only time you'd mention them was of anyone was asking for power/thrash or versatile vocalists.

A whole good scene for this is the first wave of retro DM revival stuff back in like 09-11, sure there was a couple of overt stand outs like Dead Congregation and Funebrarum who still get constant praise, but the lower early DDRcore tier like Miasmal, Decrepitaph, Vasaeleth and so forth really vanished from consciousness once the movement was populated enough to drown out the sheer appeal of "plays OSDM". Also it's been eaten away by jangledeath

Yup...all this stuff was pretty big when I got into metal around 2005-06. I remember a lot of them being pretty cool, especially Twisted Tower Dire who I still play sometimes. Imagika from the original post have had some good shit. They're not A-list bands, though TTD came really close before going on their long hiatus.

Good thread. I hadn't thought about many of these bands in years.

My thoughts on a couple bands I saw mentioned here.

Into Eternity - I never heard them being hailed as one of metal's next great bands or anything. I still enjoy their music to a good degree and Scattering of Ashes is a great album. It's a shame they haven't done anything since Stu left the band. I've also heard that Stu sucks as a live vocalist and could only do the clean and high vocals and one of the other dudes did all the growling. Can anyone confirm this?

Shadows Fall - these guys were huge little over a decade ago, about 12 - 13 years. Again never heard them called metal's next thing. They were just a big part of the metalcore wave that struck right after the nu metal wave in the late 90's and early 00's. They were however one of the better bands of that ilk. Leagues above stuff like Killswitch Engage and All That Remains etc. Though All That Remains did put out Fall of Ideals and I loved the shit out of that.

Agathodaimon - that's a name I haven't heard in a long time, a long time. I have their first few albums and I think they're really great but these guys were one a load of bands in an over saturated genre so they just kinda got forgotten about. I saw some people talk about them here when their last album dropped. It was just a few blips on the radar though.

.

Blackguard (ex-Profugus Mortis).

These guys were everywhere for a while but sorta disappeared and haven't released new material in years.

They put out an album after Scattering of Ashes?? Huh. Anyway thanks for the links

.

Pretty much most of 2000s metalcore/groove/'modern American' metal bands except for Lamb of God. Many of them disbanded, while others peaked/stagnated and/or dropped off the face of the earth/stopped being relevant. Chimaira, Shadows Fall (maybe), Himsa, God Forbid, even my beloved Unearth come to mind.

You're thinking of Cormorant.

We are getting old Jim!
I know those bands, but I don't remember them being that hyped.

The first Andromeda album is fantastic! I think they fell right in between prog rock and prog metal after that, but maybe they like it there? Also, I never liked their current singer.

Gotta say it again: The Sword. Yes, the band who was going to bring Heavy Metal back but ended up being upstaged by Steel Panther. Cue The Price Is Right trombone.