Nothing exceeds like excess

Okay, perhaps it's tacky to use an album name as a title for an entry, but the title of Raven's 1988 album fit with what I wanted to talk about today so I "borrowed it". My main thought is about excess bands, bands who are really fast or really slow and where do these bands go after making an album that seems to have pushed the limits as far as they could.

I was recently listening to the first two albums from Electric Wizard which are exceptionally slow, but very heavy. I remember buying Saint Vitus-The Walking Dead on album back around 1987. When I went to play it for the first time, I didn't realize it needed to be set on 45 speed so I played it on 33 1/3 for a few seconds until I realized what was wrong. Well Electric Wizard's early isn't too different from that Saint Vitus album being played on a slow speed. Recently I was reading reviews on Electric Wizard's last two albums and a number of people really complained about the direction they went in. I have heard We Live and it's different, but not that far removed yet a lot of people don't like it because it's not the same style as Dopethrone and Come my fanatics. Yet when a band does an album that is to one extreme then where do they go for the next album? So Electric Wizard's early albums were so very slow and eventually were well received by a small following, but how long can they do that kind of music before it gets old for them and the fans? At some point they are going to say well that's add some pace changes or add something in the background and the sound will change. Back in the 80's and early 90's it was the fast bands who changed. When Possessed and Death released their debut albums, they were really fast and heavy. Yet both bands progressed and the sound became a little toned down and more accessible. Napalm Death, Carcass and other grindcore/death bands of the late 80's early 90's also toned down eventually. Not everyone changes as I believe Deicide and Morbid Angel have tried to stay along the lines of the same sound then again these bands certainly have not gained much popularity since say 1994 either. Still we are fans and sometimes we are stubborn when it comes to a band changing their sound.