I wondering about bands whose popularity fell off the cliff, particularly in the post-2000 era.

There was a thread a couple of years ago on the same topic, but I wanted to discuss it again with a focus more on the post-2000 timeframe. And why?

I am going to go with Fleshgod Apocalypse. They seem to be really popular around the 2010-2013 period, but people don’t really talk about them anymore. I used to see people wearing the bands shirts all the time, but it recent years their popularity really seemed to drop off. They released an album called King, which I think got mixed reviews. The follow-up album (Veleno) was received better, but they have had quite a few line-up changes in the last few years. Was it due to all the line-up changes? Although that is pretty common in extreme metal.

Another group maybe would be Keep of Kalessin. Some people say that was due to the firing of the vocalist, or maybe due to the pretty drastic change in sound and the whole Eurovision song contest with the song The Dragontower. Maybe they lost a lot of street cred with that. To be honest, there is not much black metal in their overall sound nowadays.

What are your opinions?

Definitely Keep Of Kalessin. For a time, it appeared as if they were being dubbed as the torch bearers for "modern black metal" but that sentiment seemingly evaporated eons ago.

Another one is Taake. They were the darlings of the scene but I never see/read/hear anything about them/him anymore.

Pain Of Salvation is another, I suppose. They are still spoken of, but their rapid ascent to the throne of prog metal 'saviors' stalled out about 15 years ago.

That is an interesting choice. I thought that they were still quite popular, although maybe didn't reach the heights compared to the first couple of albums.

Another one I thought of was Hour of Penance. I thought they were going to be one of the biggest names in death metal, but nobody seems to talk about them anymore. This might be due to the fact they they don't have any original members left in the band.

I want to say Skeletonwitch though it ran into many unfortunate factors, some slightly beyond their control. I can absolutely see firing Chance Garnette as a necessity given his drinking problem, but he did have a super good stage presence and a pretty unique singing voice. The new singer wasn't quite the same in his delivery, and it also brought a huge change in musical direction saw them shredding all the thrash and death influence and becoming a lot more run-of-the-mill USBM band. They also haven't toured nearly as much nor have they released anything since 2018.

Havok also fell off, they were riding that new wave of thrash pretty well, doing some decent tours and all, then started writing songs about how being politically correct was ruining everything and chugging the libertarian Koolaid (not that they had thought-provoking lyrics before). The musicianship also stagnated a bit, and they haven't done any touring I think since COVID times.

I agree with both your choices and the explanations. I think the last couple of Havok albums got pretty mixed reviews overall.

This one might be a bit of a stretch, but I thought Angelus Apatrida would be one of the bigger thrash bands around by now. They seem to be building a following, but I don't think the last couple of albums made much of an impact. I think the albums are quite good, but they seem to come and go with not much fanfare.

Many of the folk metal bands from the early to mid 2000s aren't really talked about much anymore. Ensiferum were really popular at one point. That Jari asshole got the boot and did his crowdfunding scam stuff and Ensiferum continued on but haven't heard anyone really talk about them.

The really happy and polka-y folk bands don't get talked about much either now. That might have been more of a fad in metal at the time than anything else but all the Korpiklaani and Finntroll types of folk metal aren't talked about much and there aren't many newer bands playing in those styles that are popular. Also Blackguard, they toured for like 5 straight years or something like that and now hardly anyone remembers them. Granted, they were more annoying than popular but people still talked about them.

Revocation's second most recent album, The Outer Ones, reached #46 on the Billboard Top 200 albums. Netherheaven, which was released last year, didn't even crack the chart.

DevilDriver had a string of several albums that charted in the 30s or 40s of the Billboard Top 200 albums. Their second most recent album, Outlaws Til the End: Vol. 1, only peaked at #172, and the most recent one didn't chart at all.

Machine Head's newest album, Of Kingdom and Crown, didn't enter the Billboard Top 200, either, although the negative reception of the album before that may have played a part.

Revocation and Machine Head are doing just fine from a live attendance standpoint. Devildriver definitely isn't, Dez drove off John Boecklin by treating him like shit and it turns out that when you lose your main songwriter, there's a pretty good chance that your band will never be the same in a bad way.



Ensiferum is in a good place these days, Thalassic was a huge release for them and helped them reestablish themselves. Blackguard was everywhere because they bought onto every tour they were offered and then learned that being a perpetual buy-on band means that you will never grow or gain a reliable fanbase. Polka metal (and folk metal in general) is vastly less popular than it was in the mid/late 00s up until the mid-10s.

Deströyer 666 - probably because of KK Warslut and the lyrics

Kvelertak - was once "the new big thing"; is anybody even listening to them anymore?

Samael and Tiamat - the days of passage-popularity are long gone, and im not sure if we ever can expect an album from the latter though they still exist. Bands, nearly "everyone" did like in the 90ies. Same for "Gorefest"; sure, they dont exist anymore, but Bolt Thrower is permanently getting mentioned, right? And once they have been THE hot shit.

Tankard and Anthrax - surely both are still popular, but there was a time nearly no one would have mentioned them as "inferior" to the other big fours (the german, the american). No thats permanently stated.

I agree with Havok. Maybe even Toxic Holocaust? I havent had the feeling, that their last album did earn a lot of praise. Skeletonwitch always have had an ungranted hype aura for me. They arent bad, but as well not much more; so i dont really wonder. They never ever have had the potential of a band like "the crown"; speaking of the crown: comparable stuff from the era of the the haunted debut etc seems to be totally unpopular; this whole melodic yet brutal death-thrash thing from the early 2000 is not mentioned anymore or plays nor role (Witchery).

Virgin Steel?

Rhapsody.

After Power of the Dragonflame (flawless discography until this album), they still had the Symphony of Enchanted Lands II which was ok, but after that they went downhill.

I think From Chaos to Eternity easily stands up with the original saga albums, but certainly in terms of popularity they seemed to dive after Dragonflame. But then wasn't there some dispute between them and Magic Circle/Joey Demaio that effectively stopped them releasing anything or touring for years?

I forgot Ketzer; after the first one or two albums i would have promissed them a different future.

Vektor has sharply fallen off in the past few years, with their extended hiatus and the controversy with David DiSanto. They got dropped from both Century Media and 70000 Tons of Metal the moment they were announced for them, and it doesn't seem like they're going anywhere else any time soon.

True. Apart from that, more and more people seem to be annoyed by the vocals; i own only the first two, and its been ages i did spin them, because the vocals suck.

Carpathian Forest; is anybody still listen to them?

Carach Angren. Their first two albums were well received and they were touted as the next big thing in symphonic black metal and since then... well it's been a while since I've seen them mentioned around here or anywhere for that matter.

Yeah, it did seem like they had a bright future because those first two albums were fun black/thrash albums for the whole family. But I think after those first couple of albums, they changed their style to some kinda post-metal thing that wasn't really working for them.


They had a split with Cryptosis a couple of years ago and I honestly thought Cryptosis stole the show there.

Cryptopsy. People wouldn't shut up about them. Even if the praise was really just about the first two albums. "None so Vile" "Lord Worm" etc. Then Unspoken King happened.

Decapitated was kind of the same way...

I do, they're neat.

Deafheaven: They had their apogee with "Sunbather" and all that came out of it, but I don't think they're hardly relevant nowadays.

Electric Wizard: I don't think they've stopped being that popular, but their last album was so poor and bland that there doesn't seem to be much hype for them compared to what there used to be.

Gorgoroth: Although they are still popular for their legacy and importance in the genre, compared to everything that is talked about/discussed/written about the popular bands of their era, it seems to me that they are the group that most people have left out (plus Infernus is a rapist so it would be nice if their name was not brought up so much).

Green Carnation: A band that had a very discreet comeback for how popular they were.

Vargrav: When their debut and sophomore came out, it seemed like everyone had the need to talk about this project and how it was the true successor to Emperor, but both V-Khaoz and their fans seem pretty quiet lately.

Agree with Eletctric Wizard, there was a time it was so "chic" to listen to them. ISIS - cant remember the last time i saw them being mentioned.

Cryptopsy had a shot at regaining most of their lost popularity, but squandered it because Flo is one of the dumbest fucking human beings on the planet and basically a real-life Dethklok member. Decapitated was more just the band going in a polarizing direction.

Was the hype ever truly warranted, to begin with?

Depends on your opinion but "Black Masses" and to a slightly lesser extent "Witchcult Today" and "Dopethrone" are legendary albums in my book. But yeah, a lot of their more recent stuff is kind of boring and repetitive.

ISIS were a great band, but it's hard for a band to maintain popularity when they haven't existed for close to 15 years.

To be clear, I'm a fan and own all of the classic stuff, but even then, it seemed like the fanbase and metal media was overzealous in their praise of the band.

I just realised that Peste Noire fits in this thread too, for a while they were the greatest exponent and reference of french black metal, nowadays only the most brainless fans pay attention to them, almost nobody cares about this band anymore.

True. There was a point in time where PN got reviewed by Fantano.

Everything I've tried from E-wizz post Witchcult Today has always rubbed me the wrong way. Jus was never a great guitarist or the smartest writer, but it seems that they really fell back onto the most "baby's first doom" style of writing and even got lazy with the aesthetics.

Electric Wizard is starting to feel like they're too big for their own good. Their 2019 US tour was pulling ludicrous numbers, but they've musically been treading water for a while and just don't feel like they care any more.

Turisas. After their incredibly boring album "Turisas2013", their popularity took a complete nosedive and now basically no one gives a shit about them anymore. Then again, as others have mentioned, that style of upbeat folk metal isn't really popular anymore in general. However, I liked their take on that sound... before "Turisas2013" at least, lol.

Dragonforce ever since ZP left has been much less talked about. They toned down their excesses and now nobody really gives a shit anymore except die-hard PM fans.

Electric Wizard should have disbanded when Tim Bagshaw and Mark Greening left the band.

Dragonforce toned down the excess? Since when?

After ZP left over 10 years ago now.

Dragonforce do have a much more streamlined sound now, lol. The shredding's still there, but it doesn't go on for like 2-3 minutes at a time like it did during the ZP days. I like 3 out of 4 of the Marc Hudson-fronted albums ("Reaching Into Infinity" feels like infinity to get through) and I honestly do think the guy's a better live vocalist. And yeah, while they still draw a decent sized crowd, they aren't as big as they used to be. I saw them open for Kamelot a while ago (during the latter band's "Haven" tour). It most certainly would've been the other way around in 2006-07. Also went to a headlining DF gig a few years after that and to be fair, it did sell out - the venue was a 500 cap one, but still, lol. "Ultra Beatdown", the final album with ZP, charted at 18 on the US Billboard 200. "Extreme Power Metal", their latest album, failed to chart on the Billboard 200.

Compared to what they were doing on Inhuman Rampage and Ultra Beatdown, I don't see how you couldn't find their recent albums a lot more standard PM - it's obviously still them but they did tone it down a lot and don't cover everything in that insane array of computer effects and shit that was popular in the late 2000s.

I agree. However, it seems that the controversy hasn't impacted Inquisition too much. I know they were dropped by Season of Mist, but they signed with a new label and my understanding the last album sold well and was really popular.

I don't know how it has impacted them from a live perspective, though. Maybe they were dropped from a bunch of tours?

I feel like Dragonforce-mania would have passed either way. If they had stayed as the same sort of hyper-caffeinated, over-the-top hummingbird power metal, people would have moved on because they kinda were a gimmick band and that sort of thing usually has a very short shelf life. They may just be more standard (albeit shreddier than usual) Europower with some VGM influence now, but that's also more sustainable than what they were.

Regarding the gimmick band thing, do you think the same is going to happen to Ghost? I am wondering if their popularity will drop off in the next few years. Just a thought ...

Ghost have lost all their credibility with the "true" metal crowd. They're incredibly popular among mainstream metalheads but most people you'll find online don't like them anymore. I remember a time when they were the next big thing and everyone though they were cool. They even played MDF in 2011!