Metal Sludge Gossip Board

List bands where their best stuff was not their first 6 (or more likely first 4) albums.

Only rule is that conventional wisdom has to pretty much agree with you. If you personally like Crazy Nights and Hot in the Shade best, it doesnt really jibe with what Kiss' zenith was.


Judas Priest - SFV/DOTF
Behemoth - The Apostasy and beyond

Scorpions? They were around a long time before Love at First Sting

Bob Seger for the win!

You could make a strong argument for the following:

Pink Floyd
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles
Rush
Fleetwood Mac
Judas Priest
Elton John
R.E.M
Bob Dylan
ZZ Top
Genesis

I might disagree with a few of those, but I could understand why one might make the argument for them.

DonJuanDeMarco wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 7:23 am Bob Seger for the win!

Great pick!

DonJuanDeMarco wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 7:23 am Bob Seger for the win!

Came here to say this! He had a lot of stuff out before Live Bullet exploded. Kinda like KISS with Alive, ironically the same year.

CrankerBait wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 7:26 am You could make a strong argument for the following:

Pink Floyd
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles
Rush
Fleetwood Mac
Judas Priest
Elton John
R.E.M
Bob Dylan
ZZ Top
Genesis

I might disagree with a few of those, but I could understand why one might make the argument for them.

Yeah, this list is pretty accurate. I think the only bones I'd pick would be

Judas Priest - I have British Steel over Screaming For Vengeance, but that is CLOSE
Pink Floyd - It's technically right, but there's two soundtracks and only half of an album with Ummagumma in there. Feels wrong.
ZZ Top - Commercial Zenith, yes, but Tres Hombres is better than anything they did in the 80s.

Four albums is definitely easier than six.

Savatage - if you count Dungeons as an album, conventional wisdom is that #5 (Hall of the Mountain King) is the pinnacle (or at least the kickoff of their golden era)

Hardcore Superstar - the self-titled (album #5) is the one they usually play the most songs from (and lately, they've only been playing one song from the records released prior)

Journey - their fourth was their first with Perry, but it wasn't until #7 that they became massive

Sammy Hagar - I admit I'm not that familiar with his solo stuff, but it seems like #6 was when he started to get big

Tom Petty - might be a controversial pick since he did some great stuff prior, but I think conventional wisdom (at least in terms of pop culture/zeitgeist impact) would be that his late '80s/early '90s stuff is peak Petty, which would be his 8th album with the Heartbreakers and his first solo album (and maybe some Wilburys carry-over)

April Wine put out 6 albums before anybody in the US even heard of them
Whitesnake 1987 was their 7th album
Golden Earring's best-selling album was their 9th
Bee Gees had at least a dozen albums out before they peaked

Anthrax442 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 7:41 am

CrankerBait wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 7:26 am You could make a strong argument for the following:

Pink Floyd
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles
Rush
Fleetwood Mac
Judas Priest
Elton John
R.E.M
Bob Dylan
ZZ Top
Genesis

I might disagree with a few of those, but I could understand why one might make the argument for them.

Yeah, this list is pretty accurate. I think the only bones I'd pick would be

Judas Priest - I have British Steel over Screaming For Vengeance, but that is CLOSE
Pink Floyd - It's technically right, but there's two soundtracks and only half of an album with Ummagumma in there. Feels wrong.
ZZ Top - Commercial Zenith, yes, but Tres Hombres is better than anything they did in the 80s.

As with ZZ, so for REM. Their commercial peak was albums 7 and 8 but Reckoning then Green (5 and 6) were better musically.

Anthrax442 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 7:41 am

CrankerBait wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 7:26 am You could make a strong argument for the following:

Pink Floyd
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles
Rush
Fleetwood Mac
Judas Priest
Elton John
R.E.M
Bob Dylan
ZZ Top
Genesis

I might disagree with a few of those, but I could understand why one might make the argument for them.

Yeah, this list is pretty accurate. I think the only bones I'd pick would be

Judas Priest - I have British Steel over Screaming For Vengeance, but that is CLOSE
Pink Floyd - It's technically right, but there's two soundtracks and only half of an album with Ummagumma in there. Feels wrong.
ZZ Top - Commercial Zenith, yes, but Tres Hombres is better than anything they did in the 80s.

All good points. I prefer looking at runs of three, four or five albums in a row as being an artist's overall peak period, instead of one album being the zenith, which is more challenging, especially when a you could be basing a list on commercial zenith, artistic zenith or a mix of the two. I feel a lot more comfortable saying that Meddle to The Wall, Rubber Soul to the White Album or Permanent Waves to Grace Under Pressure are works of bands in their prime/at the top of their game, instead of having to pick one album as the definitive career apex.

DonJuanDeMarco wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 7:23 am Bob Seger for the win!

Came here to post this. He actually had an album called Seven, which was his seventh album. He did not hit with that one.

...or his next, Beautiful Loser.

Live Bullet, which broke him nationally was his 9th album.

There are some really good records in his "unknown" material.