What's in a name?

When a band changes their sound too much, fans more often than not says that they should have changed their name. This is no longer the same band, etc. What I wanna know is; are there examples of bands that have done this successfully? And don't come dragging with a band name used in the rehearsal rooms before they hit it big with another name. I'm talking about somewhat established bands with a following that changed styles and/or name and kept or increased their fanbase.

I can only come up with 1 example: LightForce to Mortification.

I can think of two, but they're name changes rather than style changes.

Resurrection Band changed to Rez Band, then to Rez and I think they went back to Resurrection Band.
Seether released one album as Saron Gas, which was only released in South Africa, but changed their name for their first international release.

I can't think of many successful bands that have changed their name full stop. It could be argued that Legacy were a pretty established band when they changed their name to Testament but they didn't alter their style at all. Ludichrist/Scatterbrain? Maybe but neither band were big. Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave, the addition of a high profile guy like Cornell probably puts them into 'supergroup' territory.

Probably the best know was The Thamesmen/Spinal Tap but that's not real!!

edit, not metal but the classic one has to be Joy Division/New Order.

Harem Scarem changed their sound so much that for 3 albums they went by the name Rubber in Canada. It was the same band in terms of personnel, but the sound moved away from Melodic Rock and into Power Pop. I think they did OK, but not gangbusters. Some of the songs from the Rubber era went on to be recorded by other Canadian pop artists and made them some coin as writers/producers.

Then they went back to being Harem Scarem.

Laaz Rockit changed their name to Gack for their Japan only release (at least I think it was japan only) before breaking up . There was a slight stylistic change so I'm not really sure what that was all about (Problems with their label ? something like that I think).

Wrathchild AMerica to Souls At Zero comes to mind

Savatage to Trans-Siberian Orchestra?

Stone Temple Pilots kinda tried it twice with mixed results. The first time Scott Weiland wigged out on them, they hired a new singer and recorded an album as Talk Show. Good album, but I don't think it went anywhere even though it still pretty much sounded like STP.

They tried it again with the singer from Filter as Army of Anyone. And again, not a bad album but didn't seem to make a dent in the public conscience.

Learning from past mistakes, they are releasing this new ep as "Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Benninginton".

Another one that comes to mind is the guys from Creed kicking Scott Stapp to the curb and becoming Alter Bridge with a new singer. That seems to be working out pretty well for them.

Black Sabbath did ok as Heaven & Hell  

I know Geffen back in the day was trying to convince Death Angel to become D.A, and that name is still used today in certain circles.

Daniel Amos to D.A. on a couple of albums

Altar Boys to Altar Billies when they switched over to a rockabilly sound

It wasn't successful in that fans still hated it, but Lizzy Borden changed their name to Starwood for one album so that they could do something different musically. I thought it was really good and was glad they didn't release it under the Lizzy Borden name.

thejokeriv wrote:

Savatage to Trans-Siberian Orchestra?

*lalaalalalal* *it's not real* *lalalala*

ultmetal wrote:

It wasn't successful in that fans still hated it, but Lizzy Borden changed their name to Starwood for one album so that they could do something different musically. I thought it was really good and was glad they didn't release it under the Lizzy Borden name.

I like that album too. I knew it was Lizzy Borden, the person, but I didn't realize it was the same Lizzy Borden band members. I thought it was him with a bunch of other guys for a side project. Cool.

Burn The Priest became Lamb Of God (but still suck IMO).

kmorg wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

Savatage to Trans-Siberian Orchestra?

*lalaalalalal* *it's not real* *lalalala*

The leftover scraps of Vixen briefly went by "VXN" and then "JanetShareRoxyGina" and finally "JSRG" if memory serves.

The Front became Bakers Pink, and neither name helped, straight to the cut out bin it went

Fat Freddy wrote:

"JanetShareRoxyGina"

"Janet Shares Roxy's 'Gina" was recently nominated for an AVN Award. True story.

manny wrote:

The Front became Bakers Pink, and neither name helped, straight to the cut out bin it went

I have both of those albums and they're both equally boring. I'm pretty sure I saw Baker's Pink open up for Great White way back in the day too.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Black Sabbath did ok as Heaven & Hell  

Good choice

Carcass to Blackstar

The Dogz became Flotsam & Jetsam.

Do you think Metallica will see greater success now that they've changed their name to Avenged Sevenfold?  

Bitch became Betsy for one album before going back to Bitch.

Bad 4 Good became Lucy's Milk.

kmorg wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

Savatage to Trans-Siberian Orchestra?

*lalaalalalal* *it's not real* *lalalala*

Even Jon Olivia admits as much.....