If anyone hasn't heard of the Ship of Theseus, its a thought experiment where a ships parts are replaced slowly over time, and at which point is it no longer the same ship?

There's a lot people that think Sepultura are a tribute band without the Cavaleras, even though Andreas has been a main songwriter since joining.

Stratovarius have been without an original member since Tolkki left, but Kotipelto and Jens Johansson have kept on going and no one seems to mind, maybe because their "classic" period is from when they joined?

So what do people think? Do you have a cutoff point from when bands go from being the original to a tribute act?

Napalm Death is an obvious example to point to for a "Band of Theseus", since literally no one who was on the debut album is in the band today.

As far as a "cutoff" point is concerned... I've never really thought about it in that regard. I generally accept the band under that name as being that band, regardless of who's still remaining or not. I don't think who's remaining or not, is necessarily going to have an effect on whether I'll still like their new music or not. Sometimes bands keep the same members and still lose what made them special, while other bands can have some or all of their members replaced, and yet still produce good music, which may even still be in the same style that they're known for.

Enthroned is a completely different band now. The cutoff point is when Sabathan left and Nornagest took over the frontman duties. While I don't care for the current band at all, to their credit they don't appear to be riding on the early material. When I saw them live, they probably played only one Sabathan-era song, and a couple of the latest setlists on Setlist.fm show no old songs at all.

DGM is my go-to example. The band is named after the initials of the three founding members, none of whom are in the band anymore.