Metal Reviews

I agree Beethoven was one bad mofo

True!

a nice list, Iron Butterfly was heavy... but I must add Jimi Hendrix and Cream to that list.

BTW it's Steppenwolf...

Yes, I know. I've got a light dysgraphia. I've edited my post.

Helter Skelter is a punk song.

It's cool, I'se just giving you a hard time.

You're all wrong. Limp Bizkit pioneered heavy metal!!!!!

Pfft. It was Nickelback. Everyone knows that.

In all seriousness, I would say Black Sabbath ultimately pioneered metal. However, in addition to what Ganesha pointed out about Sabbath's music being a logical progression of bands like Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly, I would also like to mention that the heavy metal genre probably wasn't fully evolved until Metallica released Kill'em All in 1983 (or at least until Iron Maiden released Number Of The Beast a year prior). Until then, the line between heavy metal and hard rock was a lot thinner. In fact, many of the bands we now call "classic rock", such as Ted Nugent and Aerosmith, were considered "heavy metal" in the 70's and very early 80's. And even a lot of the bands we still associate with metal, such as Judas Priest, Motorhead and Ozzy Osbourne, had more of a classic rock sound. Iron Maiden and especially Metallica were probably the two bands that truly established the dividing line between hard rock and heavy metal.

Wrong. Aerosmith, Nugent, etc. were NEVER NEVER NEVER considered as heavy metal by anybody in the 70s. WTF?
Venom predates Metallica... Mercyful Fate, Tygers of Pantang, Tank, Satan, Angel Witch, Diamond Head, Saxon, all Judas Priest (listen to stained Clas, Unleashed In The east, British Steel or Screaming For Vengeance and still try to tell me that is not pure metal), Pagan Altar, Riot, Raven, Accept... ye gods, I could go on.
those bands and others defined metal long before Metallica came along.

I get the impression that you don't really know too much about metal outside of the "big four" bands, no offense, just an observation.

Nonsense all the way.

How in the hell does Motorhead have a "classic rock" sound?
And Ozzy's Blizzard and Diary are absolutely heavy metal. I don't see the c;assic rock comparison at all.

I think the main change come in 1978-1980... Judas Priest with Stained Class, Hell bent for Leather & British Steel, and all NWOBHM explosion.

1983 is too late, metal as we know was defined years before.

Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden are the three bands that define Metal. I would say that Black Sabbath started it but they got "help" from Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Later on Judas Priest and Iron Maiden shaped Metal's true shape.

True?

Do not forget Blue Öyster Cult and Deep Purple.

I'll admit that I botched my "metal progression" post, and if my history is off, I apologize. What I said about Aerosmith and Ted Nugent being given the "heavy metal" label in the 70's was from the BNR Metal Pages almost eight years ago. But if I was misinformed, then hey, I apologize. I also apologize for the decline in the quality of my posts since I started coming back here (I've had a lot on my mind these last few months, which was why I originally left to begin with, and haven't really been giving my posts as much thought as I probably should).

But just for clarification, I never said Motorhead, Ozzy, etc. were "classic rock." What I meant was that, until probably about 1982-ish, the difference between "metal" and "hard rock" was considerably slimmer than it was afterwards. That doesn't mean those bands aren't metal, though. Just that Blizzard Of Ozz, Ace Of Spades, Overkill, Diary Of A Madman, etc. are from a time when the "classic metal sound" was still evolving (and yes, I recognize that those were key albums in said development - I own AOS, Blizzard, and Diary).

Perhaps my suggestion of a "classic rock sound" is a personal thing, since as a kid I used to listen to a lot of heavy 70's rock on the radio. And early-Motorhead, early-Ozzy, etc. often reminds me of that.

Priest and Maiden were but two bands that helped shape metal... their contemporaries had as much of an impact, though Priest obviously came years before them.
Hell Venom was the band that vamped up what is known as NWOBHM, opening the gates to a new level of extremity in Metal. Listen to Witching Hour / One Thousand days In Sodom / Angel Dust... this was way back in 1981, and than from there it got even more "extreme", for want of a better word. An evolutionary process.
I cannot see how any one band can be credited with the birth of metal, though if, IF, one can be, I would have to give my nod to Sabbath.

Deep Purple... perhaps, though they were still very bluesy a lot of the time.
But Zeppelin really is way too eclectic to pin any one label on them, other than rock.
And then you have Uriah Heep, early Nazareth, BOC, Cream, Hendrix, etc... all had a "heavy" sound and / or wrote about things outside the mundane.
Meh, who cares, just listen to some good tunes and be done with it.

I remember hearing from an old person that people called Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix metal back in the 70s.

I seem to remember Zep being one of the first bands to be defined as heavy metal. Alice Cooper claims it was him, though.

I dunno... in its early days metal was like one branch of the hard rock tree. You couldn't tell for sure where it started and hard rock ended. That's how it seems to me as a life noob though.

Anyway, I guess it's round the NWOBHM time that it becomes a seperate tree in its own right. And definitely with the more "extreme" metal i.e. Venom etc.