Best/Most Impressive Improvements from Debut to Second Album?

[RaceFan3]

Talking to some friends about this the other day, we came up with some good ones. Which albums can you think of that had the most noticeable leap from an artist's debut to their sophomore effort?

Could be in terms of songwriting, arrangements, production, even concept.

A few come to mind right off the bat. The debuts are great of course, but the second album takes another step:

Metallica: Kill to Ride
Megadeth: Business to Peace Sells
Crue: Too Fast to Shout
Evanescence: Fallen to Open Door
Danzig: I to II
Tygers of Pan Tang: Wild Cat to Spellbound
Saxon: S/T to Wheels of Steel
Leppard: Night to High N Dry
Dokken: Chains to Tooth
Nirvana: Bleach to Nevermind

And tons more. What you got?

[Love_Industry]

Disagree with Crue and Nirvana, except the better production and bigger budget.

Accept - s/t to I'm a Rebel
Priest - Rocka Rolla to SWOD
Maiden - s/t to Killers

And, just like most here I prefer Appetite to UYI but the leap is obvious. From a fairly straightforward sleazy rock album to an eclectic collection of songs showing more diversity than probably any band in the genre and era.

[HueyRamone]

SAD WINGS OF DESTINY

Of course, it's bizarro world here, and this is now somehow an "unpopular" album.

[TREVERLAST]

L.A. Guns. I prefer S/T but they improved a lot on Cocked & Loaded.

[Wednesday 13 Fan]

I'd say Megadeth. That first album was shit. Peace Sells is definitely overrated, but still a massive improvement.

[Rocker4Real]

Pantera. They established their Groove/Thrash/Hardcore mixture with Vulgar Display. Cowboys has great stuff, but is still a bit derivative with Anselmo doing Halfordish stuff.

[Love_Industry]

Motörhead s/t to Overkill
Mercyful Fate s/t to Melissa
Dream Theater WDADU to Images

[Traxan]

Nightwish, the growth from Angels Fall First to Oceanborn is massive

[jens]

SAD WINGS OF DESTINY

Of course, it's bizarro world here, and this is now somehow an "unpopular" album.

Unpopular is bullshit or course, but I'd call it more of a "superfan-favourite". On spotify it's pretty far down on the list too:
https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/2tRsMl ... lbums.html

[daveg]

Mr Big
Black n Blue
Billy Squier
Lee Aaron
Helix

[Psychobolia.com]

Show No Mercy to Hell Awaits

[GoodJudge]

Pantera. They established their Groove/Thrash/Hardcore mixture with Vulgar Display. Cowboys has great stuff, but is still a bit derivative with Anselmo doing Halfordish stuff.

5th and 6th albums. Cowboys wasn't even the first with Phil.

Anthrax' Spreading The Disease was a giant step forward from Fistful of Metal. Obviously having a decent singer helped, but mainly just far better songwriting, and the latter also applies to Megadeth and Kyuss.

[Rocker4Real]

Pantera. They established their Groove/Thrash/Hardcore mixture with Vulgar Display. Cowboys has great stuff, but is still a bit derivative with Anselmo doing Halfordish stuff.

5th and 6th albums. Cowboys wasn't even the first with Phil.

Anthrax' Spreading The Disease was a giant step forward from Fistful of Metal. Obviously having a decent singer helped, but mainly just far better songwriting, and the latter also applies to Megadeth and Kyuss.

They said in interviews that they consider their independent albums to be like their demos.

[kingbrian74]

Jetboy

Junkyard (though most won’t agree with this….but sizes, sevens and nines is the better album)

Faster Pussycat

[Anthrax442]

Anthrax' Spreading The Disease was a giant step forward from Fistful of Metal. Obviously having a decent singer helped, but mainly just far better songwriting, and the latter also applies to Megadeth and Kyuss.

Was going to mention this. I'm one of the few that prefers Spreading to Among the Living. Just a massive step up from Fistful.

[IREEKOFAWESUMNES]

Skid Row S/T to Slave to the Grind

[Sleek]

L.A. Guns. I prefer S/T but they improved a lot on Cocked & Loaded.

It's the Tom Werman effect. He's been cited 3 times so far.

[St_Augustines_Pears]

Anthrax' Spreading The Disease was a giant step forward from Fistful of Metal. Obviously having a decent singer helped, but mainly just far better songwriting, and the latter also applies to Megadeth and Kyuss.

Was going to mention this. I'm one of the few that prefers Spreading to Among the Living. Just a massive step up from Fistful.

Spreading The Disease is my favorite Anthrax album.

[risingfarce]

Aeroshit - S/T to "Get Your Wings"

Queen - S/T to "II"

Judas Priest - "Rocka Rolla" to "Sad Wings Of Destiny"

Black Sabbath - S/T to "Paranoid"

Metallica - "Kill 'Em All" to "Ride The Lightning"

Elton John - "Empty Sky" to S/T

Extreme - S/T to "Pornograffitti"

Mr. Big - S/T to "Lean Into It"

RUSH - S/T to "Fly By Night"

Styx - S/T to "II"

Bruce Dickinson - "Tattooed Millionaire" to "Balls To Picasso"

Sweet - "Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be" to "Sweet Fanny Adams"

[Hellsinkey]

Ok, it's not going to be all Sludge...

Prefab Sprout: Swoon to Steve McQueen
Ash- Trailer to 1977
Breeders- Pod to Last Splash
The Cult- Dreamtime to Love
Jane's Addiction- s/t to Nothing's Shocking
Neil Young- s/t to Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Sleeze Beez- Look Like Hell to Screwed Blued And Tattooed
Teenage Fanclub- A Catholic Education to Bandwagonesque

[Hellsinkey]

Sweet - "Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be" to "Sweet Fanny Adams"

Good choice. What a coincidence, I'm listening to Funny... right now.

[Whatever Happened To…]

Motörhead s/t to Overkill
Mercyful Fate s/t to Melissa
Dream Theater WDADU to Images

Was gonna say Motörhead as well. From a so-so debut to their best album was quite the lap. Stay Clean, No Class, Capricorn, Metropolis, I'll Be Your Sister, the title track itself, it's just a relentlessly great album.

[Traxan]

I can't believe no one said Rush.

There was a minor lineup change that might have had something to do with it.

[Anthrax442]

I can't believe no one said Rush.

There was a minor lineup change that might have had something to do with it.

Is the change from Rush to Fly By Night that much of an improvement, though? They started to change up styles from being a Canadian Led Zeppelin to be sure, but I don't know that it's a lot better, just different.

But then again, I'd say the same thing about Judas Priest going from Rocka Rolla to Sad Wings of Destiny, it was more of change in style than improvement. The JP jump in quality to me is going from Stained Class to Killing Machine.

[VinnieVincentsVag]

Unpopular opinion here, but for me, it’s faster pussycat self titled to the second

[VinnieVincentsVag]

.

[HoldenSSV]

Pantera. They established their Groove/Thrash/Hardcore mixture with Vulgar Display. Cowboys has great stuff, but is still a bit derivative with Anselmo doing Halfordish stuff.

5th and 6th albums. Cowboys wasn't even the first with Phil.

Anthrax' Spreading The Disease was a giant step forward from Fistful of Metal. Obviously having a decent singer helped, but mainly just far better songwriting, and the latter also applies to Megadeth and Kyuss.

They said in interviews that they consider their independent albums to be like their demos.

That was bullshit revisionist history and they knew it. They're fucking embarrassed because it didn't tie into the whole Douchebag/Dimestore meathead image that made them big.

[Anthrax442]

That was bullshit revisionist history and they knew it. They're fucking embarrassed because it didn't tie into the whole Douchebag/Dimestore meathead image that made them big.

Agreed, but got to respect the fact that at no point in the last thirty five years have they attempted to properly release those albums. They could very easily have done a quick remaster on them and put them out as a box set, and people would have bought it, but they've been okay with leaving that stuff in the vault.

Although, I have to wonder if that would still be the case had Dimebag not gotten murdered. I could totally see at least something like "Proud to be Loud" or "PST" having shown up as a random Record Day release or something.

[aznsquirt]

They said in interviews that they consider their independent albums to be like their demos.

Yeah, but they weren't. You'd have to get into a "major label releases" debate to make that case.

But the run from Am I The Night --> Power Metal --> Cowboys --> Vulgar is one helluva run of constant evolution/improvement.

[risingfarce]

I can't believe no one said Rush.

There was a minor lineup change that might have had something to do with it.

I did.