Bands that became better after losing a leading founding member ( like Mike)

[EPICVIEW]

^^^ nice list Bosk1.

The Lep one is interesting, I saw them with Willis..and yea it was great, ( ironically on the Ozzy/Randy Blizzard tour , DL opened, another irony of that tour was that Joe Perry Project was on that bill) but , yea thats a good one..

but its tough to find one 25 years, or lets just  say 10 years into a succesful career,, the VH one is another good one you cited, I liked Sammy solo, saw him solo and enjoyed him more solo..but thats a good one too.. but DLR on his solo tour was amazing also..so both bands pulled it off, but that always felt like a battle between frontmen....

I guess one could say DLR and Ozzy pulled it off..they both left bands they had helped found, and went on years later to have big careers..and eachs former band had success

Lynch? sorta..

[LCArenas]

-Van Halen after losing DLR:  I know this one is controversial, but I consider their output with Sammy to be FAR superior.  Tighter playing.  Stronger songwriting.  Better singing.  Etc.

OH MY GOD FINALLY SOMEONE THAT THINKS THE SAME AS I DO

[EPICVIEW]

Dave Grohl... although he was Kurt's 3rd or even 4th drummer.. he became huge obviously..

Nirvana is fascinating in many ways..

[jingle.boy]

-Van Halen after losing DLR:  I know this one is controversial, but I consider their output with Sammy to be FAR superior.  Tighter playing.  Stronger songwriting.  Better singing.  Etc.

OH MY GOD FINALLY SOMEONE THAT THINKS THE SAME AS I DO

You're not the only two.  AC/DC was a good call too Bosk. 

Springsteen (without the E-Street Band)
Deep Purple (hard to compare as there have been soooo many changes)
Yes (from the departure of Howe, but then he came back, and left again ...)

However, there certainly are more instances of bands declining after the loss of a major/influential/founding member.  That goes without saying.

[bosk1]

I was going to throw Journey in there as well, but they have gone through so many different incarnations, and each had its own glaring strengths and weaknesses.  I guess one way to define the eras would be:
1.  Pre-Perry era
2.a.  The Perry/Rolie era
2.b.  The Perry/Cain era
3.  The Augeri era
4.  The Pineda era

I would say from 1 to 2 was an improvement.  2.a. and 2.b. are both strong in different ways.  Hard to compare.  As much as I love Augeri, I can't say he was an improvement over Perry just because of the strength of all that Perry-era material.  But the Augeri years were DEFINTELY better than the late Perry (Raised On Radio onward) years.

[Birch Boy]

You can add Motörhead to the list with Megadeth and Whitesnake.

[SoundscapeMN]

Rutsey was the drummer in Rush from '69 through '74.
Chuck Moseley was the 1st singer of Faith No More (on record). Although Courtney Love was even with them for a brief period.

the names I think of among my favorites being Marillion and Fates Warning. But I can't say they became better, but I suppose better in some ways, and equally as good overall.

Savatage is another name that comes to mind, although that was more of a style change. Like Marillion, they could have just changed the name of the band instead.

[El Barto]

Maiden, multiple times.

A friend of mine compared this to Bruce's departure from Maiden.  What struck me about the comparison is that even though nobody particularly likes Blayze as Maiden's singer,  his first album with them absolutely destroyed Bruce's last two efforts.  Their popularity really tanked, but the quality of music increased greatly.  Considering that I haven't really cared for the last few DT albums, I think this might very well be the case here as well.  There will probably be a big backlash from some Portnoy fans, and I doubt a new drummer will every be completely accepted, but I think they might crank out an album or two that is far superior to the last couple of MP albums. 

[EPICVIEW]

Spinal Tap was never the same after losing John Stumpy Peaps.. although I did enjoy the Joe Mama Besser years.. ..

I didnt like anything with Peter "James" Bond, or during the Mick Shrimpton years... never could they recreate the magic of JSP and it showed in the bands playing

[Orbert]

Anyone like Face Dances and It's Hard?

That's a rhetorical question, right?  I can't think of anyone of who would argue that The Who got better after they lost Keith Moon.

[LudwigVan]

Anyone like Face Dances and It's Hard?

That's a rhetorical question, right?  I can't think of anyone of who would argue that The Who got better after they lost Keith Moon.

Haha, yeah that was rhetorical.   I brought it up because there are really not too many instances where a drummer leaving (or passing) had such a great impact, which attests to the importance that guys like Moon and Bonham had in shaping their bands' overall sound.   9 times out of 10, a drummer leaving a band is a non-event. 

[Blu]

-Van Halen after losing DLR:  I know this one is controversial, but I consider their output with Sammy to be FAR superior.  Tighter playing.  Stronger songwriting.  Better singing.  Etc.

OH MY GOD FINALLY SOMEONE THAT THINKS THE SAME AS I DO

I normally don't do this...but....

+1

Actually, VH is my #1 band, with DT being #2.  The Sam era is 1000x better, and for the exact reasons Bosk listed. 

[wolfking]

My opinions;

Angra (Matos was overrated)
Accept (new album with new singer is amazing!!)
Axel Rudi Pell (After Johnny jumped on board)
Black Sabbath (everything after Ozzy)
Iron Maiden (enter Bruce Dickinson)
Eidolon (enter Nils)
Firewind (enter Apollo)
Gamma Ray (the classic lineup we have now)
Kamelot (enter Roy)
Sieges Even (enter Arno Menses)
Whitesnake (enter John Sykes)

[Orbert]

9 times out of 10, a drummer leaving a band is a non-event. 

Ah, but there have been some major events the few times it was an event.  The Who have never been the same since Keith Moon died.  Wildly inconsistent, and sometimes just kinda bad.  And there is no Led Zeppelin without John Bonham.  They've tried very hard to honor that.

That's two of my favorite 70's bands, two that are always on anybody's "most influential" list, done in by losing their drummer.

[Bacong]

Symphony X

[EPICVIEW]

KISS!!

[Orbert]

Shirley you can't be Sirius.

[Birch Boy]

Don't call me Shirley.

[Nihil-Morari]

Pain of Salvation after losing Daniel Magdic. If I remember correctly he was the band leader before recording their first cd.

[SoundscapeMN]

My opinions;

Angra (Matos was overrated)

I disagree. They haven't been the same band nor the same style since.

[lord-ruler]

When Journey lost their original Lead Singer they did pretty good.  They ended up with Steve Perry.  When they lost their original Drummer they got Steve Smith.  Traded in Greg Rollie for Jonathon Cain.  It can be argued that they were at their best when they were strictly and Instrumental Band though.

[splent]

My opinions;

Angra (Matos was overrated)

I disagree. They haven't been the same band nor the same style since.

Temple of Shadows was their strongest album IMHO, so I would agree with wolfking in this instance.

To comment on other comments...

Journey it all depends on what you like more.  My dad would agree that when Steve Perry joined the band became better (Steve Perry is vocally his role model). 

Genesis, I agree on every case until Steve Hackett left.  And even then, and then there were three and duke were great albums.  Genesis hit their height of popularity after everyone else left, however.

[Basekick]

Wow.  You would think that a place like DTF that is SWARMING with Steven Wilson fans that it wouldn't take nearly 60 posts before someone remembers that Gavin Harrison wasn't an original member of Porcupine Tree.

[Orbert]

Journey it all depends on what you like more.  My dad would agree that when Steve Perry joined the band became better (Steve Perry is vocally his role model).  

Genesis, I agree on every case until Steve Hackett left.  And even then, and then there were three and duke were great albums.  Genesis hit their height of popularity after everyone else left, however.

Steve Perry didn't replace someone who left.  Gregg Rollie was already singing lead vocals, but Perry was brought in to juice things up.  They shared vocals for a few albums.  The bigger change, to me anyway, was Jonathan Cain replacing Gregg Rolie on keyboards, which also meant Perry sang lead vocals full time.

Genesis got more popular the smaller they got, but "better" is much more subjective.  My favorite period is the four-piece band after Peter Gabriel had left, but I love the five-piece stuff as well, and I think their sound would have reached something like that even if Gabriel had stayed.

[Nihil-Morari]

Wow.  You would think that a place like DTF that is SWARMING with Steven Wilson fans that it wouldn't take nearly 60 posts before someone remembers that Gavin Harrison wasn't an original member of Porcupine Tree.

Did anyone say that? I hope not.

[tri.ad]

Basekick just did.

[Nihil-Morari]

I mean, I never saw anyone say that Gavin was an original member. I could've missed it.

[robwebster]

Think the point he's making is that Porcupine Tree is a band that became better after losing their original drummer, and yet somehow nobody's mentioned them.

[Basekick]

Think the point he's making is that Porcupine Tree is a band that became better after losing their original drummer, and yet somehow nobody's mentioned them.

Correct.  I wasn't saying that someone else was misinformed, but rather making the point that Porcupine Tree is 20x better with one of (if not THE) best drummers out there.  Thought this would have been one of the first posts.

[tri.ad]

I mean, I never saw anyone say that Gavin was an original member. I could've missed it.

Oh, fair enough.

[LudwigVan]

Think the point he's making is that Porcupine Tree is a band that became better after losing their original drummer, and yet somehow nobody's mentioned them.

Correct.  I wasn't saying that someone else was misinformed, but rather making the point that Porcupine Tree is 20x better with one of (if not THE) best drummers out there.  Thought this would have been one of the first posts.

It is interesting that nobody's mentioned this one.  But the idea that Porcupine Tree became 20x better after Gavin Harrison joined his quite debatable.

[EPICVIEW]

Shirley you can't be Sirius.

its debatable and its always debatable if Im Shirley or Sirius...!