Certif1ed

I'm not attempting to make any kind of formulations, this is a purely exploratory exercise, as well as a good excuse to listen to great music, while thinking about where metal came from.

I haven't gone into a lot of detail about Sabbath, mainly because, up to 1979 their influence is relatively minor; You can hear it strongly in Judas Priest, which could be explained by the fact that both bands were from Birmingham, had the same producer, and Iommi's management company looked after Priest (and mysteriously saddled them with Gull records, instead of getting them signed to the much more reputable Vertigo!).

I'm trying to think of a band, let alone an early metal band that shows their influence, apart from some of their immediate contemporaries, like Vertigo stable mates May Blitz, who split up after their 2nd album.

Among the NWoBHM bands, there simply don't seem to be any - except Dio and Blizzard of Oz, for obvious reasons!


I'll dedicate a post to charting Sabbath's emergence and influences, and another to exploring their possible influence on other bands - but Iommi's riffing style remained unique for at least 10 years. There really was no-one like Sabbath!

It might be better to look at the other, less obvious bands first, and look at the bands that they influenced up to 1979.

It's just something that seems to leap out as you listen to music from that time.

I'm not saying Spooky Tooth were first, just noting their creativity and direct influence on the style. I'm trying hard here not to form opinions or present opinionated nonsense - just factual nonsense...

What I did say in a kind of tongue-in-cheek way was that they were the first band to use the term "Heavy Metal" in the context of rock music, beating Steppenwolf, who are traditionally given that credit, by a whole year.

They also go back further than Art and Hapshash/Heavy Metal Kids, as far as 1964 and even earlier - so they're interesting from that point of view.

At the moment, there is a load of other stuff from the 1960s left to explore - and 1965-1970 is my favourite time in music, despite being too young to remember it.

I've only lightly touched on the use of fuzz, and exposed metals absolute roots in blues/rock and roll and psychedelia (no surprises, since most rock styles are rooted in psyche) - and the more surprising area of surf/garage, and plan to go into that in a bit more depth, as no metal history I'm aware of even considers that influence.

There's more, of course - Glam Rock didn't start in the 1970s, it started in the 60s, and it's a huge factor that most people gloss over.

I will definitely explore Budgie, but they're a 1970s band, and there are loads of those who had an impact on modern metal. I remain unconvinced that they were a "prime influence" on the NWoBHM, but they were obviously an influence on Metallica, like so many others. There is the interesting link with Sabbath and Priest that Rodger Bain also produced Budgie's debut.

That's the point of this thread really, to discover who the real influences and influencees were, and look at solid links in the chain (rather than vague claims of being influenced by so-and-so) - as well as to check out some excellent music - even if it only confirms what you already know.

As I said above, I'm trying to present this in an exploratory, non opinionated way, and I'm bound to miss something - so these inputs are really useful.