OK, look, it is really not my style to call people out. Especially not on stuff they say in interviews; I've done a lot of interviews: you say whatever comes to mind at the time, maybe you're drunk or high or angry or bored or so depressed you can barely speak. You just talk until you're done; you shouldn't generally be held accountable for what you say when you're doing the press rounds. But in an interview with the outstanding blog Metal Sucks, Blake Judd, the main dude from the pretty excellent band Nachtmystium, responds to a question thus:

Q: Assassins is a pretty big departure from your previous work and I would think will divide your existing fans who claim it isn’t “br00tal” or “tr00” enough. Does this concern you?

A: No. I don’t make music for other people.

To this I feel I must say: oh, really? Nonsense. If you are making music only for yourself, you don't release it. While it's true that an artist does not owe his fans the music they want, he does, in fact, owe them quite a great deal, and he lies if he says he isn't making music for them. Because it's the listeners to whom an artist owes the right to self-identify as an artist. They gave you that job. It is for them that you make music, not yourself; only artists of whom no-one has ever heard have any right to claim that they "don't make music for other people."

The rest of us must always be true to our visions, don't get me wrong. If we waste our inspiration trying to chase down past glories to satisfy people who don't think we should grow or change, we're traitors of the worst kind. But don't kid yourself. You do owe the audience something, and you do make music for them, and if you don't think of it that way, perhaps you should.