People get old, bands get old, tastes change.
Metallica couldn't still be putting out "Ride The Lightening" every couple of years, there's no growth there.
It's like any relationship - you always start on the same wave length, but both parties change over time.
What band has stayed the same for decades without evolving..?
(actually, I'm starting to think about that now...)
Motorhead?
The Rolling Stones..?
of course you're right, evolution is the natural way in which time influences individuals and, of course, musicians...
no band in history managed to remain "true and faithful" to itself, and lack of evolution is something i usually hate in music. i evolve, and expect my favourite bands to do the same. even when a band goes back to its musical roots it usually does it in a way that's far lightyears from the real "old" sound. fortunately.
metallica could not play the way they played when they were 18 even if they wanted to.
my point was different... i used to like metallica when i had little or no knowledge of what happened in the "underground" scene... so i thought they were the heaviest posible form of music... i loved iron maiden but i was looking for something harder, and metallica gave me a bit more heaviness... then i discovered other forms of metal and started to perceive metallica as a weak wannabe thrash band, too pedantic and melodically uninspired to play in the same league with iron maiden and other melodic metal bands (even much heavier ones) and too harmless to be compared to the death/thrash/black metal scenes i was discovering.
in a word, useless.
but i repeat, it's just me and what i looked for in music. now i'm listening to death metal as well as pop (a lot of pop, actually... ;)) and other genres i rejected when i was a kid. that's evolution. but metallica - except for some catchy song - still stay out of my interests.
