Top 10 Founders of Metal Music

The most important metal bands:
1. Black Sabbath - initial inventor of the dark sound.
2. Deep Purple - gave metal shredding guitar, added classical influence, and speed.
3. Judas Priest - savior of metal from the punk attack in the mid-70s, first with the twin guitar leads, making a standard arrangement style for metal, removing the hippy style and giving a leather style culture to metal.
4. Big 4 Thrash - raised the level to be heavier.
5. Pantera - savior of metal from the grunge attacks in the early 90s, and the gate for subgenre development.

Metal is currently defined as an extreme non-bluesy subgenre of rock music, mostly based on classical music. Deep Purple was the first band with such songs, so they solely invented the pattern of metal music as we know it now (credits to Ritchie Blackmore for mingling rock and classical music). For the record, Black Sabbath's early albums (70s with Ozzy) were heavy blues rock, not metal. Even Tony Iommi admitted that.
Deep Purple also had hard rock songs, which made their metal legacy more obscure. However, besides the general pattern of metal music, they defined some other metal elements:
1. They first used double bass drumming on "Fireball" (1971).
2. They were "the globe's loudest band" of the 1970s, officially listed in the 1975 Guinness Book.
3. Ritchie Blackmore first expressed that appetite for speed, complex songwriting, and fast technical solos and riffs (e.g., "Highway Star" - you can also hear the galloping style, made popular later by Iron Maiden and currently found everywhere).
4. Ritchie Blackmore, aka The Man in Black, gave metal its signature color (black).

Ritchie Blackmore started it all in Deep Purple (1968-1974) by mixing rock and classical music (now known as heavy metal) and perfected it in Rainbow with Dio (1975-76). Dio confirmed the top-notch metal singing and also introduced the famous horns (one of the metal symbols).
Credits for inventing subgenres like power metal and neo-classical metal go exclusively to Rainbow. They also perfected traditional metal and speed metal, adding a certain epic feel and some proggy nuances.
Check out their genre-defining songs:
From the 1976 album: Stargazer, A Light in the Black, Tarot Woman.
From the 1978 album: Gates of Babylon, Kill the King, L.A. Connection.
Metal instrumentals (neo-classical): Still I'm Sad (1975); Difficult to Cure (1981).

In the early 70s, most metal riffs were slow, but Judas Priest played their riffs a little bit faster. Some people claimed them as one of the founders of speed metal.
They revolutionized metal more than everyone else. Black Sabbath may have been the heaviest band of the early 70s, but Priest defined the real metal sound.
Judas Priest should be at #3 because they were the third band after Deep Purple and Rainbow that came up with the pure metal sound, i.e., non-bluesy sound.

While they didn't originally found metal, they heavily (pardon the pun) shaped metal after it was created by the hard rockin' of Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, Rainbow, and Judas Priest.
Maiden wins this list by far. Sure, Sabbath founded it, but Maiden took it to the next level. Also, the reason why metal still lives is because of Maiden.
The greatest and still going strong! Just saw 'em yesterday in Helsinki (too bad the sound quality at the stadium was bad). Up the Irons!

Zeppelin were around before Sabbath and obviously influenced Sabbath. Listen to Dazed and Confused and You Shook Me from their first album. Both songs anticipated Sabbath's doom sound by two years.
Yes, the heavy metal genre started with Black Sabbath, but Led Zeppelin planted the seeds. Without Zeppelin, I think metal would be very different.
Led Zeppelin was the band that coined the term "heavy metal," so they're the best.


Their sound was a fusion of progressive/art rock/heavy metal. David Byron's quasi-operatic vocals contributed to their metal sound too. The song Bird of Prey (1971) is a metal song, with metal vocals and screams: awesome vox even from today's metal viewpoint.
Their debut album 'Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble' (1970) was one of the first albums with the word Heavy in the title. It contained progressive rock, hard rock, heavy metal, and blues rock.
Their epic piece Salisbury (1971) is 16:20 minutes long and sounds to me like early symphonic metal with prog elements. Its length can compete with the lengthy stuff of current metal bands. Give it a chance and be convinced. And surprised.
Their metal songs were influenced by Deep Purple but they were cool in their own right. Some other metal songs: Look at Yourself (1971) and Easy Livin' (1972).


The Newcomers


There was a time I believed Motörhead were metal, but currently I'm not sure at all. They mostly play hard rock, fast rock 'n' roll, and blues rock - all those with some punk air to it. Lemmy himself stated that they were closer to punk rock than to metal.
Overall, Motörhead are not metal or borderline metal at best. Maybe their punk-ish attitude influenced thrash metal somewhat, but it's just my speculation.

Formed in 1969, they became a transitional group between early hard rock/heavy metal and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM).
Their song Doctor Doctor (1974) was covered by Iron Maiden.
Great to see UFO in the top 10. They seem to be the forgotten ones on all other lists.



Although often listed with Rainbow, Ronnie James Dio's solo career laid some of the major foundations for both metal and the solo singer industry.

Surprise, surprise - Queen was not considered a metal band or metal influence back then, but things changed over time. They actually wrote and performed the first thrash metal song, Stone Cold Crazy. It was written by Freddie in 1968 and recorded a bit later when he joined Queen. Metallica did a cover of it.
Another pretty aggressive and dark song is Dead on Time.
In contemporary metal music, you can hear more Queen than Led Zeppelin, for example. The famous multi-layered/canon vocals from Bohemian Rhapsody became a feature of Blind Guardian, late Savatage, and many other metal bands.

Technically they didn't start heavy metal, but it wouldn't be awesome without them.


Early metal songs by Thin Lizzy include Massacre and Emerald, released in 1976. Their song Thunder and Lightning came out before Kill 'Em All, and it was a thrash song. Massacre was covered by Iron Maiden, and Emerald was covered by Mastodon (there's a very cool and extended instrumental section in Emerald).
My favorite metal songs: Angel of Death, Thunder and Lightning, Killer on the Loose, Cold Sweat, and Massacre. Their most popular songs/hits were not metal, which is normal - in the 70s and early 80s, metal was far from the mass tastes.
Many metal bands did awesome cover versions, revealing the metal potential of Thin Lizzy songs and Phil Lynott's great songwriting abilities. Most of the covers are in thrash and death metal style, showing the originals had this potential.
I just started a new list on the Top Tens: Top Ten Best Cover Versions of Thin Lizzy Songs.



Their style in the 70s was completely different from their 80s mainstream ballad style. Check out at least the song Sails of Charon (1977). There are also cool cover versions by Yngwie and Testament.

Obviously should be higher. Mississippi Queen is such a heavy song you'd think it came out in the late 70s, but it was actually 1970! Way ahead of its time.
