This thread is for songs, albums, bands, individual artists - stuff that defines what heavy metal is - lists, and a bit of waffle explaining why this selection defines the music.
So I'm gonna kick off with one man; Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister.
This dude IS heavy metal. He started out as a total rebel, forming a band called The Rockin' Vicars just to piss off his old man, who was a Priest.
He then came to the drug-capital of London, Ladbroke Grove, in 1967, where he then got jobs roadie-ing for Jimi Hendrix and The Nice before forming a doomy trip out band called Sam Gopal.
He famously joined Hawkwind in 1971, where he proceeded to pummel everyones eardrums with his hi-gain sound and frickin' CHORDS on the bass!
The rest is history - he was booted out of Hawkwind because of the inconvenience he caused them by getting nicked carrying amphetamines on a US tour, so he formed a band called
Bastard - which he was then forced to change by the chicken record company who didn't even have the grace to release his first album.
Imagine if THIS had been released in 1975 when it was recorded - punk might never have happened!
Motorhead's 3rd album, "Overkill", released in 1978, features a title track which was to change the pace and intensity of metal for ever. The album cover alone says it all;
The bands 3rd album, Bomber actually scored a hit single in 1979, with the terrifyingly aggresssive title track,
then the band completed world dominion the next year with the LEGENDARY "Ace of Spades", which competes with "Bohemian Rhapsody" for the most number of times at number 1 and most ubiquitous rock song.
The biggest difference between the two songs is that no matter how often you hear it, you never get fed up with "Ace of Spades", - it just makes you want to grab the air guitar and thrash like crazy, push the pedal to the metal
and don't forget the joker...
Unbelievably, Motorhead are still going, which makes Lemmy himself something like second in longevity only to The Rolling Stones. Or maybe 3rd to Cliff Richard. Who gives a ****.
Lemmy is THE metal God for the above reasons
