Top Ten Metal Bands That Underwent Name Changes
The best Metal bands that had to change their name mid-careers.This will NOT include bands that changed their name before releasing an album, such as Black Sabbath and Accept.
They were originally called Ghost, but were forced to change to Ghost B.C. just before their 2nd album for legal reasons. In 2015, they officially dropped "B.C." from their name and are just Ghost now.
Lamb of God is an American heavy metal band from Richmond, Virginia. Formed in 1994, the group consists of vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler, bassist John Campbell, and drummer Chris Adler. They originally went by Burn the Priest and played a thrashy-death metal blend. After their debut album they changed their name to Lamb of God and became the modern Groove Metal Legends we know today.
The legendary heavy metal band was originally known as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow until they changed their name after their first album to simply "Rainbow"
Mezarkabul (formerly known as Pentagram) is a Turkish metal band formed by Hakan Utangaç and Cenk Ünnü. This Metal band was very popular in Turkey, but due to confusion with the American Doom Metal band, Pentagram, They changed their name to Mezarkabul.
Their original name was (still is) Pentagram but in order to avoid confusion with the American metal band Pentagram, from their 2001 album "Unspoken" on, they began to use the title "Mezarkabul" on international releases. And for those who claim they don't, yes, they DO sing in English.
In fact they even didn't have any Turkish songs until their fifth album "Bir" (except one cover of Turkish folk song Güandüz Gece on the album "Anatolia" by Aşık Veysel). and even after that, 2-3 Turkish songs on each album, at max. So they mostly sing in English. Regardless of the language though, you should definitely check out them, they're awesome.
Recommended album: Unspoken
Rhapsody was 13 years old as a legendary Symphonic/Power Metal band, until they were forced to add "of Fire" to the end for copyright issues.
Devin Garret Townsend is a Canadian musician, songwriter and record producer. He was the founder, songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist in extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad from 1994 to 2007 and has an extensive career as a solo artist. This Metal legend from Strapping Young Lad put out his first solo album under the name "Ocean Machine". It has since been changed
There's also Devin Townsend Project
This one man black metal project put out a few releases under the name "Lurker of Chalice"
Lacuna Coil is an Italian metal band from Milan. Since their formation in 1994, the group has had two name changes, being previously known as Sleep of Right and Ethereal. That's because there was a Greek band named Ethereal.