Just out of curiosity, one day I was asking myself: which 30+ years bands are better known for their newer stuff than their older stuff? So far, I can only think of one example: Septicflesh. This band is from 1990 and they don't even play things before 2008.
Just for the record, "30+ years" is only to give attention by what I mean more or less about "old band". If you think about a band that is 28 years, it's ok to include in the list.

I think about the only band to ever have truly great new material after so many years is probably Dinosaur Jr.

Cattle Decapitation isn't quite 30 years old yet, but is getting there, and they definitely exploded into popularity with Monolith Of Inhumanity. To the point where nowadays they rarely perform any songs older than that record these days, and it seems like the bulk of their recent fanbase is okay with that. Unless I'm mistaken.

I like Humanure the best probably.

Part of me wants to say that the last few records have felt recycled, but I also don't know them well enough to truly judge. That said, in the times I've seen them I did wish they pulled out some of that really nasty early shit. Just to have some variety in the set

I don't know if Dying Fetus can count in this one, but Reign Supreme (2012), Wrong One to Fuck With (2018) and Make Them Beg for Death (2023) are all amazing albums, arguably better than Stop at Nothing (2003), Purification Through Violence (1996) and War of Attrition (2007). I like all their stuff though, but in recent setlist they play mostly their newest songs, along with a few classics from Killing on Adrenaline (1998), Destroy the Opposition (2000) and Grotesque Impalement (2000).

I'd go with Satan.

does primordial count?

also, while i personally only ever listen to the first three albums, by now most amorphis fans probably gravitate towards the newer stuff

Earlier the better with Amorphis.

Bands usually establish fan-favourites pretty early on, so it doesn't tend to happen too often. Septicflesh and Behemoth come to mind.



Even if Tomi Joutsen is viewed as quintessential Amorphis vocalist, their most well-known album is Tales from the Thousand Lakes, and Elegy is popular too.

I'll agree with this. The last 4 albums have all been fantastic and much better than anything earlier in their career.

All eras have been fantastic, imo.

Kreator comes to mind. Their latest works have attracted a lot of new young audience of people born post 2000. I think the popularity of their classic albums is bigger because there are still a lot of old guard fans of theirs, but I would like to know what will happen in years to come when all these new fans will see "Gods of Violence" or "Hate über alles" as classics and gateways for them.

Not sure about this one. Court In The Act is too much a classic metal staple. Probably equal.

Satan's Host for sure on this one. While Metal from Hell is still revered as a classic by many, a lot of people rate By the Hands of the Devil the highest, and my personal favorite is Virgin Sails. Certainly the era without Conklin is pretty forgettable. That's about all I can think of, though. It's quite an unusual phenomenon.

Sorcery's up there. Swedeath band who put out 1 album back in 1991, then came back 20+ yrs later and have released 3 albums since that have all been quite successful.

True; however, 80's Satan gave us 2x records, whilst current Satan (lol) already graced us with 4x bangers.

Generally I'm a quality over quantity guy, but those 4x releases have all been killer. I also think the band became tremendously popular since their resurgence.

Do you have anything to back this up? I've seen Kreator multiple times in the past few years and the median age of the crowd was easily 45. I've never met or even seen a Gen Z Kreator fan. Thrash of every type seems to skew way old and I can't see Kreator being an exception.

I have a few friends who are in their early twenties and are in various metal circles, all of them are post 2000 born, they are people who got into metal through metalcore and deathcore, so it's rare to see them appreciating traditional metal or bands over 30 years old, the only exceptions I've seen are Death, Metallica, Meshuggah, Arch Enemy and Kreator, from this last one I think the focus of the lyrics about rebellion and union from the point of view of misfits and the fact that they are queer friendly, something that many gen Z people value positively, in fact almost all the gen Z metalheads I know are queer.

Edits: Typos

Pagan Altar for sure. They were around back in the day but were always breaking up, changing names, changing lineups, and only ever managed to get out a demo and were spread exclusively underground via bootlegging. It was their reformation and the killer albums afterwards that made them a legend instead of underground heroes.

I feel like sadly Rotting Christ's more recent albums are more popular even though they never have been more boring. Heck I like all the albums to some degree till 2010 and think the gothic era is underrated.

The Deathspell Omega trilogy is not that new anymore, but it garnered the band a level of attention and critical acclaim that their first couple of conventional black metal albums didn't get.

Definetely Satan (NWOBHM), Mindless Sinner and maybe Rage (a little bit)

You guys putting Satan out there I think are missing the point of the thread. Court in the Act is the definitive Satan record, and has been for 40 years. They were able to reform and record the newer stuff from the last decade on the strength of Court in the Act. Casual metal fans know Court in the Act. The majority of the users here are not casual metal fans.

Hell were a band that do qualify for this. They put out their debut out about 30 years after forming. They had a number of demos as well as a single that were known in the underground, and revered by Nwobhm geeks like myself. Human Remains eventually came out because one of their biggest fans happen to become a well connected guy in metal, and eventually took one of their guitar spots.

It pisses me off that we didn't get a third Hell record, though the second one was a definite step down from the second.

I'd say Kreator are among the top ten most well known thrash metal bands, easily. They're the most popular German thrash metal band, hands down. They actually had some albums that charted on the Billboard Top 200 albums in the 21st century, something they never managed to do in their "classic thrash" era, even though Extreme Aggression and Coma of Souls were released on a major label in North America when they initially came out. (There's no way that an album that sounds like those albums could ever be put out by a major label anywhere ever again.)

Just wondering, were the shows 18+/19+/21+ or were they all ages shows? Most metal bands very rarely, if ever, play all ages shows, with the exception of the most mainstream ones (Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, etc.), and if you want to count the more "metal adjacent" bands generally not accepted as metal here, then them, too. If they were 18+/19+/21+, that would definitely make the age median shoot up; the shows being all ages would bring the median down, I'm sure.

I'd say far more people, including metal fans younger than me (I'm in my 30s) have interacted with, tend to hail Kreator's classic thrash era period (1985-1990) as their best albums more than the albums released in later eras, though many of those people like some later albums by them, too.

So no, I don't think that's the case with Kreator at all.

I wouldn't say thrash of all eras tends to skew way old, though. Maybe some of the newest thrash bands might not, like Enforced or Power Trip, but I get what you mean.

Aborted is another band that came to my mind today. They are a band from 1995, and they mostly play their new songs rather than the old songs (I think it's basically one or two old songs that are played live). When Global Flatline (2012) album with the then new drummer Ken Bedene was release, they went huge compared to before the year 2012.

Surprised nobody brought up Katatonia and Paradise Lost.

Katatonia doesn't even play any of their pre-2000s stuff live anymore. At least they didn't when I saw them 10 years ago, and judging by their most recent live album it seems they left that part of their career behind. And yet Dance of December Souls and Brave Murder Day are classics of the genre. For awhile, BMD was in my top 5 albums ever.

Paradise Lost is a bit different beast. They started doom/death went heavy metal, then gothic rock, then doom/heavy, and are now back to doom/death. They play a lot of stuff live throughout all their eras but it seems like they're most known for their newer stuff. Draconian Times is one of my favorites. It's the doom/gothic metal equivalent of the Black Album.

Doesn't all this depend on the fanbase and who exactly they're "better known" to?

I mean In Flames were getting in the Top 20 in the 90s and 00s, with maybe a couple of Top 5 albums, now their albums are getting #1s in multiple European countries. I somehow doubt it's metalheads responsible for this.

I looked up the info on Wikipedia; In Flames actually have five #1 albums in their home country of Sweden.

Interestingly, they're another band who have left the early part of their career behind, which is the part of their career anyone on this board seems to have any interest in. I've read that they don't play anything before Clayman live anymore, and at some shows, even nothing before Reroute to Remain. I'm not sure if things are still that way, but I know they were like that back in the 2010s, and probably throughout much of the 2000s.

This is all relative. Testament are releasing albums that are cracking the top 20 Billboard 200 in the USA over the last decade or so, but nobody is pretending its the commercial or artistic peak of their career. People in general are buying and consuming lesser music than ever before. Metal heads are nerds, and they're one of the remaining communities that buys physical media in bulk. Physical sales have a much bigger impact on music charts, which is why these bands are charting higher. Have a look at the numbers of albums sold between these bands hey days and today, and you'll see a stark drop off in sales over the decades.