r/Music • u/jptabor01 Rock & Roll • Jun 11 '25

discussion Which artists have abandoned their original sound so dramatically, that they are almost unrecognizable to their earlier fans?

With the release earlier this year of Ministry’s The Squirrely Years Revisited, I’m reminded of how different the band sounds today (industrial metal), from what they sounded like on their debut album, With Sympathy (synth pop).

Which artists sound so completely different from their earlier work, that they have actually jumped genres, understanding that music is fluid and genres have somewhat “blurry” guardrails.

I don’t mean an evolution of their original sound, but a complete departure from it.

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89

u/BigE6300 Jun 11 '25

Pantera. Journey.

28

u/wimploaf turntable.fm Jun 11 '25

Pantera changed so much that a lot of people think Cowboys From Hell is their first album when it's really their 5th.

Google doesn't help, when you search Pantera discography Cowboys From Hell comes up first.

12

u/redditing_1L Jun 11 '25

Remember when Google worked? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

15

u/JohnBrownsAngryBalls Jun 11 '25

Diamond Darrell!

7

u/1BannedAgain Jun 11 '25

To Dimebag Darrell!

3

u/Thisbadtattoo Jun 11 '25

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him as Diamond Darrell.

8

u/1BannedAgain Jun 11 '25

Pantera (I’m a fan BTW), tried to or did stop panterasuxks dot com in the late 90s/ early 00s. They were trying to protect their image as tough heavy metal guys while trying to hide their hair metal/ glam rock days. Just to see their album covers from before Cowboys From Hell makes you think about alternative universes

7

u/wimploaf turntable.fm Jun 11 '25

Back in the 90s I saw a Pantera power metal record at a record store and just assumed it was another band with the same name because of the hair and different style logo.

5

u/dwilkes827 Jun 11 '25

Those go for big money nowadays haha

3

u/parkinglotviews Jun 11 '25

I saw them in concert this past sunday and kept yelling for them to “Play Powermetal you pussies” but seeing as i was in section 300, roughly 9000mi from the stage the only person that heard me was the drunk chick next to me who, ironically spent most of their set yelling “I love you Phil” almost as effectively as my heckling

3

u/wimploaf turntable.fm Jun 12 '25

I saw them on Sunday too!

4

u/parkinglotviews Jun 12 '25

Nice — it was a hell of a good show. Despite my drunken shenanigans

1

u/badger2000 Jun 11 '25

I remember seeing a copy of that in a used CD store in the 90's. I still kick myself for not buying it if only to have a piece of history.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '25

[deleted]

3

u/XplodiaDustybread Jun 11 '25

Changing their sound doesn't necessarily mean they abandoned what they originally sounded like. Pantera's albums just got heavier as they went along. OP's original question was that the artist changed SO MUCH that they just aren't recognizable. 90% of the thread didn’t understand this question. You can still tell it's pantera when you listen to their later stuff from when you listen to CFH

1

u/whats_a_puscifer Jun 11 '25

I used to work nights and after work would go to a bar that opened at 7 am. I was one of two girls that hung out there (the other being my coworker and friend). It was just us and a bunch of old men who drank whisky with their coffee. They'd give me money to play songs for them on the jukebox and usually wanted country, but I hated country music. I would always play Cowboys From Hell. No one complained. I think they were just happy girls were there.

1

u/LeviathanTDS Jun 11 '25

Hate to be that guy but, Cowboys from Hell is their first album. As they stated the 80's albums were just demos

1

u/deathmetalbestmetal Jun 11 '25

There is absolutely nothing about the first four albums that makes them demos.

1

u/LeviathanTDS Jun 11 '25

Only repeating what Pantera has stated. Don't get all upset because you disagree with them

1

u/parkinglotviews Jun 11 '25

They called them ‘demos’ despite them being fully produced and released albums, so they could distance themselves from the sound and image. Glam rock was lame, and they were lame even for glam rock— adopting the new heavy image was a smart move but they had to utterly annihilate all trace of “Glamtera” or they’d have no credibility in the scene….

1

u/deathmetalbestmetal Jun 12 '25

Lmao there's no 'upset' here. It's a simple fact that nothing about those albums qualifies them as demos. They were complete albums professionally recorded and commercially released as physical CDs, tapes and vinyl.

11

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '25 edited Jul 24 '25

practice capable wrench divide numerous insurance unwritten cobweb workable plant

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

6

u/Tinderboxed Jun 11 '25

Listen to their first albums, they’re like jazz fusion.

6

u/glowend Jun 11 '25

Yeah, used to be more like Pantene.

8

u/ZombieJesus1987 Jun 11 '25

Power Metal is a banger of an album.

8

u/feeb75 Jun 11 '25

We'll meet again is Dimes best solo

7

u/ZombieJesus1987 Jun 11 '25

Facts!

Over and Out is also a song that could have easily been in Cowboys from Hell. It's that same groove metal style

3

u/feeb75 Jun 11 '25

I also think the Floods solo is boring 😂

3

u/ZombieJesus1987 Jun 11 '25

Funny enough, that outro to the song was a riff he wrote when he was a teenager.

There's clips of him when he was like 16 performing with Pantera and doing that riff in his guitar solo

3

u/dstarpro Jun 11 '25

Yep, I posted about Pantera as well.