Amazing Albums Followed Up By Terrible Albums

[kaos2900]

Going through the Skid Row discography and the distance in quality between Slave to the Grind and Subhuman Race is huge. Got me to thinking of what other examples there are of great albums followed by crap albums.

[Tomislav95]

First example that came to my mind was Iron Maiden - after flawless Seventh Son and Somewhere in Time they released their, IMO, two worst albums... and then Bruce left and there were two okay albums with Blaze Bayley but those were nowhere close to those earlier albums.

[Architeuthis]

When BOSTON released WALK ON in 1994 I was floored at how good it was! Their next album CORPORATE AMERICA was utter crap and uninspired. I still love Boston though..

[Train of Naught]

Arctic Monkeys - Humbug ---> Suck It and See (what the fuck?)
What makes it even more disappointing is the fact that this was an awesome run of three albums. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not > Favourite Worst Nightmare > Humbug, constantly changing their sound slightly but still seemed solid throughout, then Suck It and See just came as a big punch to the face.


Linkin Park - Meteora ---> Minutes to Midnight

Shinedown - Amaryllis ---> Threat to Survival

[ozzy554]

I totally agree with Iron maiden seventh son - No Prayer for the dying

Black Sabbath Mob rules - Born again.

[jjrock88]

QR Promised Land - Hear in the Now Frontier

Big downgrade

[chaossystem]

AC/DC following their very good Flick of the Switch with the nearly unlistenable Fly on the Wall.

And speaking of WALLS: Pink Floyd withy The Final Cut after the brilliance of The Wall.

[TAC]

You are right on Fly On The Wall. That album sucked!



I'll take The Final Cut over The Wall though. I know. It's me.

[jjrock88]

You guys dont like Fly on the Wall?  I thought it was pretty solid

[TAC]

I love the title track. But that album is brutally bad. The production was horrific. Thought it when it came out.
The tour was awesome though!!

Blow Up Your Video was 100x better!

[TheCountOfNYC]

The albums I'm listing aren't necessarily terrible. Just nowhere near as good as their predecessors.

Metallica: Black Album - Load/Reload/St. Anger
Avenged Sevenfold: Nightmare - Hail to the King
Dream Theater: Octavarium - Systematic Chaos, A Dramatic Turn of Events - DT12
Shinedown: Amaryllis - Threat to Survival
Halestorm: Strange Case Of... - Into the Wild Life
Van Halen: 1984 - 5150/OU812/For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge/Balance/Van Halen III (I hate Van Halen with Hagar and Cherone)
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik - One Hot Minute
Sum 41: Chuck - Underclass Hero

[Nekov]

Dredg's The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion is a fantastic album but Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy was a huge step down. Ariich will disagree with this statement.

Snow is probably Spock's Beard best album while Feel Euphoria is something I can barely listen to.

[TAC]

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magic - One Hot Minute
 

One Hot Minute is awesome. And I'm not even into the RHCP!

[KevShmev]

The first two I thought of were:

QR Promised Land - Hear in the Now Frontier
 

Dredg's The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion is a fantastic album but Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy was a huge step down.

[King Postwhore]

Hear In The Now Frontier is excellent you turds. 


Sound Awake great, Asymmetry, not so much.

[Kotowboy]

Therapy? - Never Apologise, Never Explain - one of their top 5 albums. An amazing onslaught from start to finish. Really great production.

Followed by

One Cure Fits All - Weak songs. Terrible production. Sloppy playing.

[Crow]

Pain of Salvation: BE -> Scarsick

subjective depending on how much you like BE I guess but, uhh, yeah......

[DragonAttack]

Styx-Pieces of Eight--> Cornerstone,  Paradise Theater--> Kilroy Was Here
The Beatles, Abbey Road-->Let It Be
Jethro Tull, Minstrel in the Gallery-->Too Old Too Rock n Roll...
Yes, Close To The Edge-->Tales from Topographic Oceans

the all timer...

Queen, The Game (as far as sales and hits)-->Hot Space

not a studio follow up, but Frampton Comes Alive-->I'm In You

<I liked most of Hear In The Now Frontier, and all of Van Hagar>

[KevShmev]

Hear In The Now Frontier is excellent you turds. 

If by excellent, you mean pretty forgettable, then I agree. 

[jjrock88]

Hear In The Now Frontier is excellent you turds. 

If by excellent, you mean pretty forgettable, then I agree. 

Or average, kind of decent, not bad, ok, meh

[Mladen]

Iron Maiden comes to mind with the transition from Seventh son to No prayer. Even though No prayer isn't really terrible, it's still my 2nd favorite of theirs, whereas Seventh son is a masterpiece.

[romdrums]

Marillion: Marbles->Somewhere Else
Yes: Going for the One -> Tormato

[ariich]

Dredg's The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion is a fantastic album but Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy was a huge step down. Ariich will disagree with this statement.

Correct.

I'm not even sure I can think of anything that fits the title of this thread. I agree with some of the ones posted being clear step downs, but "amazing" to "terrible", no way (for the ones I know). There's bound to be something though.

[KevShmev]

I think Queen following up with The Game with Hot Space was a severe drop-off (although the Flash Gordon soundtrack is in the middle there). 

[ariich]

Ok, these are the closest I can think of for good-bad. None of the first albums I would say are amazing, but they're all strong enough but followed by stuff I didn't really like at all.

Metallica: Reload -> St Anger
Guns N Roses: Use Your Illusion II -> The Spaghetti Incident
Machine Head: Burn Your Eyes -> The More Things Change
Helloween: Keeper of the Seven Keys part II -> Pink Bubbles Go Ape
Ulver: Kveldssanger -> Nattens madrigal
Devin Townsend: Accelerated Evolution -> Devlab (this probably doesn't really count as Devlab was a weird experiement of sorts)

I'll think about amazing-decent as well.

[SoundscapeMN]

Russian Circles - Enter -> Station
Murder By Death - Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them? -> In bocca al lupo
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing -> Fear of a Blank Planet
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz -> Carrie & Lowell
Transatlantic - Bridge Across Forever -> The Whirlwind
Warpaint - The Fool -> Warpaint
Between the Buried and Me - Colors -> The Great Misdirect
East of the Wall - Farmer's Almanac -> Ressentiment
Cynic - Focus -> Traced in Air
King's X - Manic Moonlight -> Black Like Sunday
The Antlers - Hospice -> Burst Apart
Umphrey's McGee - Mantis -> Death By Stereo
Toy Matinee - Toy Matinee -> Meanwhile (3rd Matinee)

[ariich]

Ok, my excellent-decent list. Similar to my last post, I like the latter albums well enough, I just don't find them particularly great and a big drop off from the former album. Interesting that most declines in quality I've found to be more gradual.

The Flower Kings: Paradox Hotel -> Sum of No Evil
Opeth: Blackwater Park -> Deliverance
Porcupine Tree: Signify -> Metanoia (as with Devy in my previous post, probably doesn't really count)
Queen: The Game -> Hot Space
Ulver: Perdition City -> Lyckantropen Themes/Svidd Neger
Angra: Temple of Shadows -> Aurora Consurgens
The Antlers: Hospice -> Burst Apart
Evergrey: The Inner Circle -> Monday Morning Apocalypse
In Flames: Reroute to Remain -> Soundtrack to Your Escape
Metallica: Load -> Reload (combined with my previous post, this shows the speed of their downfall )
Queensrÿche: Promised Land -> Hear in the Now Frontier
Radiohead: OK Computer -> Kid A
Return to Forever: Romantic Warrior -> Musicmagic

[Crow]

Between the Buried and Me - Colors -> The Great Misdirect

tbh, for me it'd be more TGM ->Future Sequence 

East of the Wall - Farmer's Almanac -> Ressentiment

honestly this just makes me want Farmer's Almanac more, since I dig Ressentiment quite a bit

[Kotowboy]

Whilst I do think Saint Anger is a "worse" album than Reload - which I love...

Saint Anger is a fantastic album when you're in the mood for no nonsense pure energy heavy music.

I Saint Anger.

[El Barto]

Defenders>>>Turbo  Priest did this a lot, actually. Their tendency to roll with the times yielded some real winners and some real losers.
Diary>>>Bark at the Moon

[TAC]

BATM is awesome!  I was actually  going to post BATM>>The Ultimate Sin

[chaossystem]

How about Black Sabbath following the very good Mob Rules with Born Again?

That album should have been, and been called "STILLBORN" or "BORN DEAD!"

[BlobVanDam]

Diary>>>Bark at the Moon

While I think there was a noticeable dropoff from Rhoads to BATM, I wouldn't call BATM terrible by any means. I'd call it a dropoff from amazing to good.

Most examples I can think of have such a long span of time inbetween (and with a major change in lineup and general musical landscape) that I'm not I'd count them for the intent of the thread.

Here's a quick list of mine. This is more like "great albums followed up less than good albums", but that doesn't mean I think the latter album is always terrible, just a huge drop off from the former.

Crazy Lixx - New Religion > Riot Avenue
Dio - The Last in Line > Sacred Heart
Journey - Frontiers > Raised on Radio
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power > Far Beyond Driven
Survivor - Vital Signs > When Seconds Count

[Nekov]

Transatlantic - Bridge Across Forever -> The Whirlwind

I mean, I get you might not like The Whirlwind but saying it's a terrible album it's a bit of a stretch.


Queen: The Game -> Hot Space was one of the first things that came to mind but while I really like The Game I don't think it's an amazing album.

[Evermind]

Here's a quick list of mine. This is more like "great albums followed up less than good albums", but that doesn't mean I think the latter album is always terrible, just a huge drop off from the former.

Well, if we're going this way, I've got a few more recent and not that recent examples too:

Allen/Lande: The Showdown - The Great Divide
Blackmore's Night: Secret Voyage - Autumn Sky
Blind Guardian: A Night at the Opera - A Twist at the Myth (and to a lesser extent, At the Edge of Time - Beyond the Red Mirror)
Rainbow: Long Live Rock'n'Roll - Down to Earth (I'm biased on that count)
Scorpions: Humanity Hour 1 - Sting in the Tail
Sonata Arctica: The Days of Grays - Stones Grow Her Name

The following albums are not terrible, but not that good either in my opinion.