I don't understand why CCP stayed in this band relationship for all this time. After all they were 3 against Ed for the musical direction, but it is the past, and we (and they)moved on. It took long, but finally we're there. This week has been so good for a true Live fan. We won't be disappointed and SFBM will turn itself in its grave when it will hear the record. Because even worms aren't interested to SFBM.

...putting down those albums also puts down the fans who enjoyed them.

I like SFBM. I don't love it, but I like it. I don't like BoP and I don't like most of V. And I don't feel insulted by Chad even a little bit. I think that if you can't hear the difference between the first 3 or 4 albums and the last 3 albums, you have something wrong with you. And if you can't understand how the first 3 or 4 albums sounded like Live with all 4 participating and the last 3 albums sounded like Ed's vision, which was different than the product that came from all four, then you are too biased to see clearly. And Chad wasn't satisfied with the last couple of albums. They weren't his cup of tea and he wasn't proud of them. It's pretty simple.

Here we go again with the pot calling the kettle black. Are you saying that you are putting down the thousands of TGF and CCP fans when you put them and their music down? That's what you are implying with comments like that Nicholas.

Dude, you don't have to admit things like that in public.

He he. What can I say. I know that it ruins my credibility in some eyes - but when I can admit something like that, I hope it enhances my credibility for being objective in other eyes. I like SFBM and hate Alive. Ed went full retard with Alive. Alive is Simple Jack. SFBM was "I Am Sam".

It is hard to explain, but I think it was a combination of these things:

-Creativity - Creatively, it is sometimes hard to see if what you are doing is good or not. I think SFBM was so obviously poor that it finally woke the guys up, but V and BOP still had bright spots where all four contributed. Sometimes you have to take a break to be honest about your work.

-Security - Like it or not, a lot of bands continue putting out music because it's their source of income and they aren't sure they can do anything else, or aren't ready to give up the perks and the lifestyle that they and their family have grown accustomed to. Not necessarily admirable, but sometimes you stick it out in a crappy job just to keep the checks coming.

-Contracts - Don't ever discount the influence of recording and other contracts on these situations. The guys have never had complete control of their music until now.

-Fear - I think on some level the guys didn't feel like they could do it without Ed who had been the voice of the band, no matter how controlling and musically poor that voice became. Those kinds of band bonds are hard to break out of, and as we all know replacing Ed has been a sore spot for some of the fans of the band. I think TGF proved to the guys that they could make awesome music with other musicians.

-Friendship - It's obvious that the guys lost their friendship with Ed along the way, but the constant compromise was definitely a way to try and preserve those relationships.

There are other things, but this should be a pretty good guide to how these things happen.

I like SFBM and hate Alive.

Lemme shake yer hand bro. Same here.

I've mentioned it before but if I had no exposure to Live and someone handed me SFBM I'd probably be okay with it.

But knowing what Live was and then hearing SFBM...well...it's an audio tragedy.