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.

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.

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.

Has Anthrax's popularity really fallen though?

Obviously there is a the trend/meme culture that surrounds them (shouldn't be in the big 4 etc etc) bit i don't see that as a genuine reflection of their popularity...

If anything, their last album has given them a boost.

Dragonforce has not changed their style since they formed. They only have one song and that's Through the Fire and Flames. Literally every song they have ever made sounds the same. After the hype around them as a result of Guitar Hero died down, there really wasn't a reason for people to continue listening to them because they never evolved, never changed tempos, never changed styles in a significant way. They're still known, oh yes, but I don't think a lot of people really know any of their songs or give a shit about any of their songs outside of Through the Fire and Flames.

All of those decaffeinated death/doom bands with orchestras and sopranos that, somehow, people took to call 'gothic metal': Theatre of Tragedy, Tristania, The Sins of Thy Beloved, Haggard, Therion, The Gathering and the list goes on.

Also, goth metal itself as well, with many of the main bands split up (Type O, Sentenced, etc.) or not releasing anything in ages (Tiamat), or doing their thing but losing a lot of popularity (Moonspell, similar case to Samael earlier in this thread).

Only Tribulation and Unto Others are the only new goth metal bands with some sort of hype around them, and Tribulation is in danger of falling off as well because of the repetitiveness of their formula.

Has Anthrax's popularity really fallen though?

Obviously there is a the trend/meme culture that surrounds them (shouldn't be in the big 4 etc etc) bit i don't see that as a genuine reflection of their popularity...

If anything, their last album has given them a boost.

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!

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

When did everyone think Ghost was cool? They always had a ton of detractors. I remember lots of controversy when the first album came out about how overrated they were, how they either A) sounded too much like Mercyful Fate or B) didn't sound enough like Mercyful Fate even though people were saying they sounded like Mercyful Fate. One of my favorite takes was that they were going to ruin Mercyful Fate for people who hadn't heard Mercyful Fate but might hear Ghost, decide they suck, and then decide to never check out Mercyful Fate.

I was seemingly one of the few who actually LIKED The Sword, but yeah, they did kind of fall off the map. The last couple records were just kind of below average. I don't think they are even still together anymore, didn't they break up?

Borrowed Time. One knowledgeable mod who I haven't seen in possibly a few years by now made the prediction that in a few years time we would be whispering their name in the same hushed reveries as Cirith Ungol among other great bands. While they were a decent band, they broke up years ago, and they've almost entirely been forgotten to history. We're still talking about Cirith Ungol. One of these is not like the other.

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?

Lots of interesting choices above. I think I would add Kataklysm to the mix. Most of their albums since 2010 have pretty mixed reviews, you could even say even before that as well. In fact, on this site they have albums rated in the 40% range (Meditations) and other is the 50-60% range (Heaven's Venom). They seem to added some coreish elements to their music. The last album even had some odd djent elements to the sound as well.

Their albums seem to come and go with not much fanfare or even discussion nowadays. I think it was the case that the best albums were made much earlier in their career. I'm not sure how popular they are as a live act in recent years?

Anthrax's popularity certainly dropped big time in the 90s. I think they've managed to claw their way back, maybe not to where they were in the late 80s/start of the 90s, but to a much better place than where they were through much of the Bush-era.

I do distinctly remember some people writing them off as "hipster metal" almost immediately - the reaction to them at that time reminded me of people's reactions to The Sword in that sense. Oh hey, speaking of bands that fell off...

I really wanna say Bolzer because they were the celebrated upcomers in like 2015 but i dont see many people talking about them these days, however they do have a very passionate fanbase. Im not sure

On one hand, yeah, that's basically my issue with the follow-up, Ultra Beatdown. It basically felt like Sonic Firestorm/Inhuman Rampage B-sides. BUT, on the other hand, a change in singers did cause a change in sound... a stripped down version of it, however. It was fine - even good at times - with the first one, Power Within. The two follow-ups to that, though, not so much. Maximum Overload was okay. Reaching into Infinity was shit on a shovel. The latter was some weird fucking attempt at appeasing both sides but appealing to nobody. Which sucks to say, because Extreme Power Metal did hit that middle ground quite well for the most part and holds up as a pretty damn good album all things considered, but all the good will ran out because people stopped caring somewhere between Ultra Beatdown and Maximum Overload.

Orchid,Holy Grail and Cauldron are some bands that seems to become more an more uncelebrated.

Ah yes, The Sword! I remember the conspiracy theory that they were part some insidious plot by "hipsters" to invade metal. Good times.

The band also cares less. Herman Li is more of a youtube/Twitch guitar streamer now and claims he makes more doing that than playing with Dragonforce. They probably just do it because they like playing shows, but I doubt they are digging deep creatively.

Thank fucking God for that. Capricorn was a cool album. But Mouths of Madness is such tasteless incessant Sabbath plagiarism. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind and even can celebrate Sabbath worship, but this album went beyond worship and into full blown plagiarism. And there were only two tracks that I didn't notice that in.

Anthrax's popularity certainly dropped big time in the 90s. I think they've managed to claw their way back, maybe not to where they were in the late 80s/start of the 90s, but to a much better place than where they were through much of the Bush-era.

I really wanna say Bolzer because they were the celebrated upcomers in like 2015 but i dont see many people talking about them these days, however they do have a very passionate fanbase. Im not sure

Conan - admittedly I'm pretty out of touch with the stoner doom scene nowadays, but I don't see talk about them as much as when their first few albums were coming out.

Without ZP DF doesn't do it for me.