What are examples of follow up albums that just didn’t hold the mustard compared to their predecessors? Not necessarily a sophomore release, but I’m sure there are plenty.

Master Of Puppets/…And Justice For All
Disintegration/Wish
Raising Hell/Tougher Than Leather

Television Adventure. Would be a fine album for almost any other band..

jason from volo wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:39 am

penningtron wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:36 am Television Adventure. Would be a fine album for almost any other band..

Ohh... yes, this is a good example. I'm still waiting for that one additional listen when I finally start liking that album. Hasn't happened yet.

The live versions of those songs SLAY, but agree that the album just feels limp.

Dictators "Go Girl Crazy!"/"Manifest Destiny"

tallchris wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:26 pm The live versions of those songs SLAY, but agree that the album just feels limp.

On that note, Duty Now For the Future. There are a few superb songs but it sounds so fuckin' sterile and not in an intentional way.

There Is Nothing Left to Lose / One by One

kicker_of_elves wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:23 am Master Of Puppets/…And Justice For All

Come on now, Kicker_of_elves. You can't ask us to play a game and then make a mistake that bad straight away.

jason from volo wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:31 am The first thing that comes to mind in the 80s/90s indie rock realm of which I am most familiar is Sebadoh's Bakesale vs. Harmacy. I do not like Harmacy at all, except for maybe "On Fire".

Loads of great songs on Harmacy: "Prince-S", "Nothing Like You", "Willing to Wait", "Too Pure"...

I felt they managed to figure out a more varied pallet sans Eric's more extreme diversions here; a mature, chilled take on what Sebadoh could be, while Bakesale was a bit more one dimensional.

M.H wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 2:25 am

kicker_of_elves wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:23 am Master Of Puppets/…And Justice For All

Come on now, Kicker_of_elves. You can't ask us to play a game and then make a mistake that bad straight away.

Ehhhh... I love Justice, but you can tell they lost a lot when Cliff died. They substituted the harmonic complexity of Master of Puppets for the pantomime complexity of repeating the same phrases a lot. Also, this album was directly responsible for the sound of Metallica, because, after the Justice tour, they were sick of songs that were repetitive and went on for long periods of time. So what do you get? Enter Sandman.

ErickC wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 4:02 am They substituted the harmonic complexity of Master of Puppets for the pantomime complexity of repeating the same phrases a lot.

Nah, man. Agree with everything you said before this. AJFA contains some of the weirdest song structures in all of thrash metal, skirting the line of riff salad constantly but somehow pulling it off.

The Black Album is absolutely pounding the same riff over and over and letting Bob Rock's overblown arrangement compensate for it.

If there's a precipitous dropoff for Metallica, it's from Justice to Metallica.