Well I am one that would not accept Giant. That was not Giant.

Every situation is different though, so it's hard to just make a blanket statement regarding everyone.

For me, it's the songwriting, the voice, the sound, etc. Take one away and you can maybe get by (ie: Van Halen, Danger Danger, Black Sabbath)

But once you replace the voice, and the songwriter and some of the main cogs of the bands sound (ie: Giant)...Nope, that's a cover band.

Hardline is skating a thin line with me, only because they never really had a set lineup. Schon always said it was a project for him, not a new band. Every album had a different lineup, so with Gioeli still being there as the voice and one of the main songwriters I'm fine with him carrying on Hardline.

Foreigner, Styx, Journey etc are accepted more because they still have original members who wrote the songs, they still can capture the old sound and they went for singers who didn't change the dynamics of the band.