Bands with strong outputs after a long history...

chopper wrote: infocat wrote: echolyn 20 years (in 2012) and no bad albums Djam Karet 30 years and pretty consistently great Agreed but that doesn't fit in with the OP question "are there other bands, that surprised us with awesome albums although their predecessor albums maybe weren´t that much critically acclaimed?"

The OP is not clear at all, as the title is "Bands with strong outputs after a long history... ...of successful releases"

infocat wrote: echolyn 20 years (in 2012) and no bad albums Djam Karet 30 years and pretty consistently great

IQ - The Road of Bones continues to grow day by day into a monster and Frequency was very good too.

Yep, Steve Hackett.

I guess Anathema fits, they had a bit of a lull followed by a seven year hiatus before coming back with two very highly acclaimed albums (possibly three). Many saw A Dramatic Turn of Events as a bit of a return to form for Dream Theater too (shame the recent album doesn't reach the same level).

Edited by Hnrz - July 04 2014 at 11:08

Camel, Marillion and Swans (which i don´t knwo) are very good examples :)

ExittheLemming wrote: Good thread topic certainly. I guess it might be self evident that the most prolific time in a band's career is usually the early period where the creativity results from the association of kindred spirits who have found one another after a period of searching and dispensing with unsatisfactory collaboration. ELP are probably a case book study in such a phenomenon but you could make an argument that Yes, Gentle Giant and Genesis obey this trajectory to a certain extent. (ELP's juvenalia was represented by the early Nice material and that of Genesis and Yes by their gauche debuts) However there are notable and celebrated departures from this convention e.g. Crimson started with a hurricane and descended into a soft hippy drizzle until their second wind evidenced by the Larks Tongues, Starless and Red trilogy.

thats a nice interpretation i´d subscribe!
so most bands follow this pattern in some way or another... other prove that it´s still possible to rock your head off after being around for some decades

are there bands which needed several (or more) albums to really shine?

HolyMoly wrote: Swans have had one heck of a comeback. Many people say their last two are their best ever.

^ yep a strange one, evidence that is purportedly self evident seldom convinces. Does anyone who doesn't play the guitar give a flying f*ck about the solo output of David Gilmour?

Marillion immediately springs to mind. For me, they are doing some of their best work now. Of course, you'll always have those pro-Fish or pro-Hogarth camps, but I think everything from 1985's Misplaced Childhood up until 2012's Sounds That Can't Be Made has been consistently strong. Sure there have been some weaker moments like Holidays in Eden and Radiation, but even these albums contain some great music. Anyway, I think Marillion exemplify that if you have musicians that respect, and admire, each other, then you're going to get some positive musical results.

Pendragon is a band that springs to mind here with the critical acclaim of their last 2 albums compared to the one previous. It could be that this was at least partly due to the new drummer Scott Higham?