Who was the first REAL Heavy Metal Band?

[blackbooty1]

The question always cums up but nobody can agree. Who would you vote for?


BLUE CHEER
(60's San Fran band often overlooked but put on there cover of "summer time blues" and it sounds very heavy for its time, if not the first they are a big influence)

LED ZEPPELIN
(I think most people will call this very hard rock but Robert Plants vocal style influenced literally thousands of rock vocalist after him. The exploitation of groupies, trashing hotels, the strong arm manager, the satanic overtones its all there you've seen repeated over and over)

BLACK SABBATH
(Original lead singer Ozzy is the most famous and an icon, The metal riff as we know evented by Lead Guitast Tommy Iommi adapting to a tuned down sound using prosthetic after chopping parts of his fingers by accident. They also incorporated the feel of horror movies into there music)

DEEP PURPLE
(Sounds more of a Blues band playing really really loud, but a major influence on everyone after thim)

JUDAS PRIEST
Rob Halford states Zeppelin and Deep Purple was his early influences. They may be the biggest influence on Metal in its look with the spikes and "Hell Bent For Leather"

what do you think?

 

[D_Lanksesbye Sleepingrawe]

Spinal Tap. Without question.

 

[helgaleena]

Jethro Tull.

 

[aninnymouse]

To be honest, I can't say any one of those bands were the first "heavy metal" band.

To be honest, IMO, Blue Cheer was horrible. Just noise.

I like Zeppelin, although they were a more blues based rock sound throughout their history; ditto with Deep Purple.

I think that Black Sabbath made the blueprint for heavy metal as we know it, with Ozzy's vox, Iommi's riffs, and the overall heaviness of the music.

However, all of those bands formed around the same time, the late 60's, and became popular around the same time.

During this time, notice that there were a lot of bands doing experimental, loud, bluesy music, that started to become heavy metal. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and all of Clapton's other projects, Iron Butterfly, and The Who; just to name a few. I think one should lump Blue Cheer in with those bands, simply because they weren't quite the same as the Sabbath/Zeppelin/Purple type of thing.

Therefore, I don't think you can really put one band as being the "First" heavy metal band, as there was a lot of heavy blues and dark music going on at the time. However, I think that if you were to consider one band the first, I'd have to say Sabbath, simply because with their first three albums, they really raised the bar of heaviness, Loudness and Darkness.

However, that's just my opinion, YMMV.

So, I'm not sure any one of those bands were

 

[Rikter8]

Depends on what was floating in the air at the time....

 

[vince]

I'd go with Black Sabbath as the first Heavy Metal band as well. But there were a few songs from other bands that were popular before Sabbath. Helter Skelter, In A Gadda Da Vida, Born to Be Wild and other songs presaged the genre that Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motorhead et al popularized.

 

[jakeatolla]

Jethro Tull.

I hope to God that you're kidding........



But nobody has mentioned Steppenwolf , who did coin the phrase "Heavy Metal" after all.

 

[t1ctac]

Hard question because it's a moving target. "Heavy Metal" by today's standards? Or what was considered "Holy Shit Heavy" at the time.

For instance, Jimmy Page was in the first group of people to record guitar tracks with a mic across the room to get tube overdrive and a beefier distorted tone, vs. having a mic mere inches from the speaker. It is a heavier sound than much that was out at the time, but is nothing by our current standards. If they had come 10 or so years later with the same mindset, who knows what we'd be comparing to.

 

[Mickactual]

I'd go with Black Sabbath as the first Heavy Metal band as well. But there were a few songs from other bands that were popular before Sabbath. Helter Skelter, In A Gadda Da Vida, Born to Be Wild and other songs presaged the genre that Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motorhead et al popularized.

I agree. I never really considered bands like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Led Zeppelin, etc. to be metal. Hard rock...but not really metal. The genesis was in songs like "Revolution" and "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles - "In A Gadda Da Vida" by Iron Butterfly - and "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf. But it was definitely Sabbath who set the blueprint for the genre overall IHMO.

 

[Riven650]

King Crimson played a part, and I don't think helgaleena's wide of the point when she suggests Jethro Tull. They were one of the first Prog Rock bands, but don't let their English Folk rooted sounds put you off. They were bringing very dark ideas into loud rock music. The Nice were a band that could do heavy. Their version of America (from west side story) was trippy and heavy, and as t1ctac said, these were bands that would have used the massive grinding guitar sounds that have become the staple of heavy metal today if they had access to the techniques. But the Heavy Rock bands like Cream, Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, who pioneered those big sounds and really cranked up the filth, were the ones who probably share the responsibility for propelling the serious edge of The Blues and paving the way for Heavy Metal. You can even hear it emerging from the Beatles - John was very angry! (listen to the White Album), But the Rolling Stones' Paint It Black is an earlier example of something nasty and dark, as were the offerings of The Yardbirds. When Jeff Beck joined them things really got interesting/nasty ) He's the guy to blame!

 

[lucidbass]

A bunch of bands influenced it, anything from prog to blues rock bands, but Sabbath were the first to straight up make metal on 'Paranoid'. No modern bands that sound like Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple are considered metal, but there's a lot of sludge and doom metal bands that still sound a lot like Sabbath.

High On Fire

Electric Wizard

Judas Priest were definitely a metal band, but around after 'Paranoid' came out.

 

[Catchoftheday]

No they weren't

 

[Zeuhl34]

My vote goes to Black Sabbath. There may have been individual albums or songs that would qualify metal, but Sabbath were really the first metal band, as opposed to a hard rock band that happened to put out a metal-style album. One of the most obvious distinctions between what most people consider "hard/heavy rock" and "heavy metal" is that heavy "rock" tends to have a much more obvious blues influence, which is what stops me from calling bands like Blue Cheer, Sir Lord Baltimore, and Led Zeppelin.

Other bands that most people wouldn't even consider hard rock were also pretty important in shaping early subgenres of metal. Even though prog-metal didn't become the genre it is today until the mid-80s, the beginnings could be seen in bands like King Crimson and Atomic Rooster. Jethro Tull were, along with Deep Purple*, also influential when it came to early heavy prog, but King Crimson, Atomic Rooster, and Deep Purple were all considerably heavier earlier.

*Everyone always forgets about the first incarnation of Deep Purple, which is my personal favorite.

 

[lucidbass]

One of the most obvious distinctions between what most people consider "hard/heavy rock" and "heavy metal" is that heavy "rock" tends to have a much more obvious blues influence

Not sure if I agree. Acid Bath was still pretty damn bluesy, but still totally a metal band. Even Black Sabbath and Judas Priest pretty damn bluesy by modern day metal standards. A lot of the NOLA bands and and some stoner bands are really blues influenced.

 

[helgaleena]

I hope to God that you're kidding........



But nobody has mentioned Steppenwolf , who did coin the phrase "Heavy Metal" after all.

I'm only half kidding. I vote for Steppenwolf too. There would be no 'black metal without Tull and Uriah Heep is metal too imo. Sabbath or Zep is in my opinion a smokescreen sort of opposition that has been put forward far too often. I say go all the way back to the Who and the Stones.

 

[Catchoftheday]

Link Wray and the Raymen

Link Wray - Batman

 

[lafever]

Motorhead

YouTube - Motorhead- Ace of Spades

 

[helgaleena]

Motorhead

YouTube - Motorhead- Ace of Spades

You are not alone in this opinion. They are among the heaviest.

 

[jakeatolla]

There is a documentary of Dick Dale, the self-proclaimed King of Surf music.
In it he claims to have invented Heavy Metal by the way he plays.
I like his music, but thats a real stretch.....

 

[D_Lanksesbye Sleepingrawe]

You are not alone in this opinion. They are among the heaviest.

I would agree that Motorhead invented speed metal. I would love to meet Lemmy someday before it's too late.