Well, at first I thought the topic title sounded harsh, like wishing harm to the people themselves, but after reading your post I realized what you were saying.
I grew up with Van Halen in my teen years. They turned into Van Hagar and bubblegum pop and sappy love songs, along with Aerosmith and the Scorpions. So those three are my "nominations".

I getcha Vid...
We're talking about "mercy killings" for the betterment of society and in all actuality, the artists themselves. Styx would be on anyone's list. As Bobcat Goldthwait used to say, "C'mon people! We can't get Jon Bon Jovi up in a f____d up helicopter?

Aw man you should give ZZTOPs La Futura a listen. Their latest release and its gritty and old school.

I got ya vid on ZZtop as Deguello was their last good album.

But Aerosmith might as well have called it quits after Rocks and Yes should have quit after Relayer.

There are still plenty of other bands hanging by a thread that haven't made quality albums in decades. Can you say more pinball music themes?

Agree on Aerosmith.

Old 70s heroin Aerosmith is soooo cool. 90s Aerosmith... soooo bad.

Genesis would be another one that comes to mind. Not a fan, but the old prog stuff radically changed to badddddd pop in the 90s. “I can’t dance” anyone?

rd

Permanent Waves was the last Rush album I really cared for. Then DEATH!!!

Eh, Ill have to disagree there. I like some if the later stuff. Signals was a part of my golden years.

Another band that should have died was Def Leppard. High-N-Dry and then done.

Ok, I am not going to say death, but I would have been ok with Metallica going into a coma between the Black album and Hardwired.
Megadeth should have been done with Countdown to Extinction.

LOL, we were typing at the same time.
MoP was definitely the highlight, but there was some good stuff up to the Black album. It wasn't pure thrash metal anymore, but I was ok with that. Load was a bridge too fucking far, though.

I am a huge Metallica fan up untill black album,after that I am done.

I liked up to the black album too. After that I wasn't really young and pissed off any more and I don't think they were either.

And that's why most of the songs in the game are from these albums.

Gotta add the Creeping Death EP to this list.

OMG Van Halen got bit HARD by 80's formula crap.

Should have been:
Van Halen
Van Halen II (and I only add this one because it's in the timeline amongst other great albums)
Women and Children First
Fair Warning
Death!!!

I still have memories of Eddie all drugged out with that stupid smile on his face in the Jump video. He must cringe every time he sees that now.

I'm just old and pissed off.
I think Hardwired did what they tried to do previously, and recaptured a bit of that angry magic. The title song is great. I wanted to like the obligatory Lovecraftian song("Dream No More"), but it is not even in the same league as their other attempts("Call of Cthulhu," "The Thing that Should Not Be"). (No, we won't talk about "All Nightmare Long," regardless of whether it's about the Hounds or not...).

Totally agree.

Even though Signals was their big venture into synth, it was still a great album.

High N Dry was great, then everything after that was radio formula. We used to call them DeFM Leppard.

Excellent top 6.

Anyone here pay $200 for Misfits tickets? Tooootally not a cash grab by a bunch of litigious AARP Jersey bros.

The inverse of this would also be interesting--great bands who could not get any traction (or air play) and died way too soon.

Totally agree here about High N Dry.

Would love to see where they would be now if they stuck to those roots

I agree about High N Dry, but once I heard Tom Sawyer that band was dead to me and never did anything to change my opinion.

Led Zeppelin is the classic case of hanging around too long as Presence was the end of the road. In Thru The Out Door is a total joke.

Still, Fool in the Rain is a great song. I remember when the album came out everyone was like WTF, keyboards? Really. Then the tour was announced and the day before tickets went on sale it was all over. That was brutal.

Much worse out there, Styx for example. Yes VH, Def Leppard, Aerosmith for sure but nothing is worse that Elton John after 1976.

All I remember was us thinking "Hot Dog" was the only song that had any redemptive value on that LP. And that was being generous.

Yep, they pretty much hit an equinox with the album "Equinox" and it was all down hill after that.

Black Sabbath after Master of Reality.
I dig a song or 2 on Volume 4, but not enough to preclude death.
Black Sabbath
Paranoid
Master of Reality
Death.

Gotta disagree with this one Dave. Their last album was We Can't Dance and while it does have "I Can't Dance", it also has Living Forever, Fading Lights, Driving the Last Spike, and Dreaming While you Sleep. Half of the album is a bit of old school prog.

How bout Guns and Roses?
Appetite for Destruction......

DEATH!

I may be one of the only ones that thought Journey was done after Infinity.

Once the original singer Greg Rolie left the band they went down hill fast.

I'm sure to catch hell, but AC/DC should have died when Bon Scott did.
Never remotely the same feel.

What was it with Rolie, he never lasted long in a band...

I agree for Ozzy era Sabbath but "Heaven and Hell" and "Mob Rules" are awesome albums.

I just watched the reunion of the original Santana band and it was great. That's pretty much what Journey was, Santana's backup band.

You won't catch hell from me. I never could stand to listen to that new singer scream.

Pretty much every band ever besides the Beatles, Sex Pistols, and nirvana.

But hey, rock stars gotta eat too, and I’d rather enjoy an afternoon at the state fair with ZZ Top.

Kiss

Imagine the byline:

“Influential glam rock group Kiss, famous for pop rock hits such as Detroit Rock City and Rock N Roll All Nite, were tragically torn to pieces by Burmese spider monkeys on their recent whirlwind tour. Any future albums will sadly never be released, but their legacy will live on.”

I was thinking after more like after "For Those About to Rock"....

The Sex Pistols did

Impressed with the Sex Pistols mention.
It's crazy they only did 1 album. Anything else out there was bootleg BS..

Harsh crowd today. Adapting and continuing to make $ makes others wish you were dead..... Sheesh

No, just when the music went bad and maybe caught a virus that attack vocal cords. Enjoy the money, but stop making crap albums.

I got 2. Went to ZZ Top on New Years night (Dallas) in 80 or 81. No mention of a warm up band or anything on the radio. Lights go down, people pumped. Curtains open. Bunch of black guys called "the bus boys". Their lead off song was "I want to join the ku klux klan and play in a rockin roll band". They got booed off of the stage and we got an extra long zz set.

Another time we went to "Texas jam" a all day thing with about 7 or 8 bands. Sammy Hagar (pre halen) was next to last and just killed it. The headliners came out (Styx) singing mr roboto. Everyone got up and left. Place was half empty before their set was over.

What we basically have is people that liked bands before they hit it big, and once they got commercial success they were barred.

Then there are the other people that never heard of these bands until they got commercial so the earlier works are irrelevant.

Nah what we have is bands that clearly started to suck ass after a while but didn’t have the dignity to quit.

That too, but then they garner a whole new set of fans.

...And Justice For All should have gone down as the definitive Metallica album, but Lars had to destroy it by drowning out Jason Newsted's bass and by apparently using a plastic coffee tin lid for a snare drum.