So far I've backtracked from Black Sabbath a little - but I think that their debut album needs a bit of exploring, because nothing appears in a vacuum. Spontaneous as much of it was (as with almost every band in the mid 1960s-early 1970s), there must have been some kind of darker undercurrent that culminated in Black Sabbath.
However, as I said earlier, Sabbath didn't really have that much of a direct influence on the NWoBHM, which is where the rise of Heavy Metal as we now know it starts.
NWoBHM bands typically had a gritty, street brawler type of sound, many bands featuring covers of Rock and Roll classics in their sets, and the pentatonic scale being the one of choice for guitar solos.
Conversely, this was the time when that tradition was being broken away from, and most metal bands I can think of from that time included songs that verged on Prog Rock, particularly on their debut LPs - the music really was very exploratory, before bands began to have chart hits.
The example band I chose to represent the NWoBHM, Iron Maiden, are the best depiction of this process at work;
Their first two LPs are chock full of intricate compositions, some even suggesting Classical connotations, yet the music is downright dirty - the music of a down to earth street level band, not some pretentious Prog Rock noodling.
It's notable that the minor pentatonic is still there in the solos, although these feature more experimentation with deep whammy dive bombs, but the blues is conspicious only by its absence in the riff structures - and the speed quotient is up several fold.
Maiden's cues seem to be Judas Priest and the energy of Punk Rock, and the lyrical subject matter is aggressive - as is the band's image, with the leather jackets and heavily studded wrist bands that were synonymous with Metal in the late 1970s-early 1980s.
It seems quite a leap from Black Sabbath, but putting Priest into the equation, the progression makes a little more sense and some of Maiden's influences become clear;
Particularly when you consider what Priest were doing before "Sin After Sin";
Here the Sabbath connection is plain to hear.
However, the importance of UFO should not be underestimated;
OR The Scorpions;
...especially the latter - the Black Sabbath connection (if there is one) is very hard to hear - the influence on Uli's guitar work is plainly Hendrix - yet this is without doubt Heavy Metal from 1974 - look, there are the Marshall amps, Gibson guitars, fuzz boxes and everything!
And from 1973, The Sweet have everything that typified some NWoBHM bands - and the music is surprisingly complex and tribal sounding - reminding me very much of Iron Maiden (as posted above).
From 1972, Deep Purple demonstrate the crossover from Hard Blues-based Rock to chugging Metal - replete with Townsend-alike Marshall stacks;
1971 - the inimitable Pink Fairies, bringing the energy into metal. There's a very important link in a different metal chain that I hinted at earlier, rooted in the Pretty Things, but that's for a different post;
1970 - Wishbone Ash (any excuse!)
1969 - Colosseum's "Valentyne Suite" - very dark sounding, with fuzzed guitars and jazz tonality several miles away from the blues, with lots of chromatic movement.
1968 - Fifty Foot Hose
also 1968 - Blue Cheer
1967 - Pink Floyd
Before 1966 - "heavy" beat bands and the stuff I posted earlier - it all starts with Floyd. Or The Who. Or The Ventures.
Heavy Metal originating in Surf Music? I think not!.
I posted the Blue Cheer vid simply to show that while BC had the energy, aggression and volume, the reason I don't think they have anything to do with Metal is their lack of skillz - even though there were plenty of metal bands who started out like Blue Cheer, most learned how to play...
