5 Rock/Metal Bands Who Completely Changed Genre…And Probably Shouldn’t Have Bothered!
2. Celtic Frost – From Extreme Metal Pioneers To Glam Rock Numptys
Source // invisibleoranges.com
Celtic Frost are a metal institution, responsible for some of the finest albums of the 80’s and long revered as godfathers of extremity and their penchant for progression was always evident. 1987’s avant-garde masterclass, Into The Pandemonium, bears little resemblance to the blackened thrash found on 1985’s To Mega Therion but these albums never strayed from the heavy metal path and their underground and pioneering thrash/death/black metal aesthetic.
And then came Cold Lake.
Cold Lake is glam metal and Celtic Frost and glam metal do not go together.
An unparalleled disaster – even the band hate it – the album is an acquired taste to say the least and the fact that Celtic Frost omitted Cold Lake when they re-issued the rest of their back catalogue in 1999 speaks volumes.
Led Zeppelin managed to meld funk grooves into hard rock – we.g. Whole Lotta Love on The Song Remains The Same and Trampled Underfoot. The hybridization of popular music styles went out as soon as the music industry got control back from the artists (roughly mid 1970s onward) and everyone conformed. Get people addicted to one thing (like food companies do with sugar) and people expect the expected. Anyway don’t forget the response Scorpions got with Eye II Eye. (Grunge and techno styles gently mixed with their sophisticated hard rock) upset the narcotic expectation.