Bands with strong outputs after a long history...

Yep, Steve Hackett.

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

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

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"

Fish, of course.

I know, I've been mentioning these guys in every thread I get a chance of late, but I really think Motorpsycho fits the bill here.

After releasing several, IMO, excellent and progressive albums in the '90's and early 2000's, they changed drummers from Håkon Gebhardt, who, according to the band's front man, Bent Sæther*, tried to play jazz, to Kenneth Kapstad, who, according to Sæther again*, is jazz, and moved closer towards a more traditional perception of what prog rock is, although retaining key elements of their unique style, of what's made them popular in the past, such as the fuzzy guitar sound, and perhaps culminated their career with the 2012 masterpiece The Death Defying Unicorn, 22 years after their first official release.

*citation taken from memory and may not be exact

richardh wrote: Weird that no one up to now has mentioned Rush. They have also had exactly the same line up for 40 years and still putting out quality albums. OK they may be 3-4 star albums rather than 4-5 star albums but I can live with that.

Agreed. Especially since most people prefer the 2000's-2010's material over their 1990's albums. Prime example.

I'm glad you mentioned the last Rush album. Astounding, one of the most remarkable albums of their career.

Another one I have on my mind, just compare the new Saga album, "Sagacity," to the new Yes album - "Heaven and Earth." Saga are putting out some of the most energetic and inspiring music of their career, and Yes... oh I weep...

Some of the old-school bands seem to have definitely lost the mojo (Yes as prime example, I'd dare to mention DT but I'l wait for their next album before deciding) which honestly is understandable, with Yes we are talking people who are over their 60's now.

Gerinski wrote: Some of the old-school bands seem to have definitely lost the mojo (Yes as prime example, I'd dare to mention DT but I'l wait for their next album before deciding) which honestly is understandable, with Yes we are talking people who are over their 60's now. But for those who retain some creativity, I think it has been very important for them to realise that there still exists a solid base of loyal Prog lovers, and that many people want more classic Prog from them. For some period they may have tried to reach to younger and wider audiences through more commercial music, but in most cases they have rather failed, neither convincing the proggers neither the targeted new audience, and finally they have realised that if they keep doing good Prog they can still receive strong support from the loyal Prog fan-base, so this has resulted in some revival of really good Prog by bands which had already a long history.

well said!

i found another one: Galahad - their newest effords are really great!