Artists Who Changed Their Sound ... and Polarized the Scene
Last month, we discussed bands who changed their sound and pulled it off. But what about artists who didn’t find success after experimenting? Sometimes, fans aren’t receptive to an artist they love taking on new influences. Other times, artists need to work through growing pains and experiment to find their style. Regardless of the reason, here are some bands that polarized the scene with a new sound.
Escape the Fate
Escape the Fate is known as a defining metalcore band. The Las Vegas band burst onto the scene with Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, full of scene classics, such as “Situations.” After vocalist Ronnie Radke parted ways with the band, the following album This War Is Ours kept some metalcore elements, but saw the band exploring more radio-friendly sounds. Ballads like “Something” would set the tone for the band’s future albums, which would embrace hard rock over the chaotic metalcore the band debuted with. Yet to this day, Dying Is Your Latest Fashion is counted among the best albums to come out of the alternative scene, with Escape the Fate’s subsequent releases never quite living up to that hype.
Four Year Strong
Four Year Strong made a name for themselves with their brand of easy-core. Their debut Rise or Die Trying, along with their following album Enemy of the World, melds hardcore and pop-punk into the aggressively fun musical cocktail that would cause the scene to fall in love with them. For their third full-length In Some Way, Shape or Form, the band leaned into a more mainstream rock sound. Much of the aggression from their earlier works was toned down and breakdowns were replaced with bridges. After a lukewarm fan reception, the band returned to their pop-punk form for 2015‘s self-titled album. To this day, it’s not common to hear a song from ISWSOF on a Four Year Strong setlist, with the band favoring material from both early and recent releases.
Machine Head
Machine Head experimented in the 90’s with a genre that it seemed couldn’t be escaped: nu-metal. After releasing two groove metal albums, the band incorporated rapping and more simplistic guitar riffs into their sound for The Burning Red and Supercharger. Critics and fans alike accused the band of “selling out” and embracing nu-metal simply because it was popular. The band would return to a groove and thrash metal influenced sound and go on to release the modern classic The Blackening in 2007, putting them back in the hearts of metal fans.
Korn
Going back to the genre of nu-metal, one of the genre’s creators took a sonic turn on their tenth studio album The Path of Totality. The band collaborated with EDM producers, like Skrillex and Excision, to put out an album combining dubstep with Korn’s signature groove and rap elements. While some fans and publications celebrated the album, others criticized the band’s experimentation, claiming the album sounded disjointed. Frontman Jonathan Davis stood by the album, acknowledging electronic music isn’t always well-received by the metal community: “I knew there was gonna be bullshit, I knew there was gonna be haters. There’s haters in everything.”
Vic Mensa
Vic Mensa came into the rap and R&B world under the wing of Kanye West. With a cosign like that, it’s hard to imagine a rapper’s credibility being called into question. Yet following the debut of his recent punk-rap side project 93PUNX, Mensa received a lot of unfavorable reviews. Despite collaborations with Good Charlotte and Travis Barker (who’s been fusing punk and rap for years), 93PUNX has been denounced by many as a project that comes off as disingenuous and showcases neither its rap nor its punk elements particularly well.