• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Do you consider Led Zeppelin a METAL band?

Judas Priest and Black Sabbath were both heavy/hard Rock.
Agreed.
Many bands making records in the late 60's and early 70's fit into the hard rock/blues based heavy rock category ....MC5, The Stooges, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Cream, Vanilla Fudge, Budgie, Humble Pie, The Jeff Beck Group, Cactus, Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, Jimi Hendrix, Hawkwind, etc.
Judas Priest, the line-up that was the actual band that we know, did not really come together and cut a first record until 1974, and not until 1976-1977 before they began to gain some momentum, that is a long time after many of the records that were the beginnings of metal.
Their first record was produced by the guy who did the first three Sabbath albums and a Budgie album as well.
Judas Priest owes as much to Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Budgie as any metal band.
Judas Priest and Iron Maiden (formed in 1975) are the two bands that get mentioned most often by guys who were not around for the first records of the earlier groups above.
 
Last edited:
Judas Priest was still just Hard Rock/Heavy Rock. Metal wasn't even a genre yet. When the first Iron Maiden EP came out was pretty much the birth of metal. Those were my teen years. I was 16 in 1980 and fully in tune with what was going on in the rock and roll world, and who the top bassists were, and what they were playing. Steve Harris was the guy who brought the fast and technical metal bass style into existence, which is pretty much a hallmark of the genre. Metal evolved from there. Thrash metal etc..
 
Judas Priest was still just Hard Rock/Heavy Rock. Metal wasn't even a genre yet. When the first Iron Maiden EP came out was pretty much the birth of metal. Those were my teen years. I was 16 in 1980 and fully in tune with what was going on in the rock and roll world, and who the top bassists were, and what they were playing. Steve Harris was the guy who brought the fast and technical metal bass style into existence, which is pretty much a hallmark of the genre. Metal evolved from there. Thrash metal etc..

That was just another point in the evolution of metal, and also the point you personally became aware of it. If you read this entire thread, you'd see multiple instances of bands being referred to as metal in contemporary publications going back to Led Zeppelin. We now think of them as simply hard rock as pure metal bands continue to evolve.
 
Judas Priest was still just Hard Rock/Heavy Rock. Metal wasn't even a genre yet. When the first Iron Maiden EP came out was pretty much the birth of metal. Those were my teen years. I was 16 in 1980 and fully in tune with what was going on in the rock and roll world, and who the top bassists were, and what they were playing. Steve Harris was the guy who brought the fast and technical metal bass style into existence, which is pretty much a hallmark of the genre. Metal evolved from there. Thrash metal etc..
You may be something near correct that metal wasn't evolved in 1974 when Judas Priest started, but it surely had already started and Judas Priest and Iron Maiden were surely not the band that started metal, Black Sabbath was.
Black Sabbath had done four records before Judas Priest cut their first, and the producer for the first Priest album was the guy who produced Black Sabbath's first three and Budgie's first record.
I would have to guess that Judas Priest were trying pretty hard to follow in the footsteps of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple and Budgie and a others on the list of bands I posted.
If you think Iron Maiden were the beginning of metal, I suggest you Wiki them and read about their playing at a club named "Bandwagon Heavy Metal Soundhouse" in 1978-79-ish to try to get a record deal. Metal existed before Iron Maiden.

That was just another point in the evolution of metal, and also the point you personally became aware of it.
If you read this entire thread, you'd see multiple instances of bands being referred to as metal in contemporary publications going back to Led Zeppelin.
We now think of them as simply hard rock as pure metal bands continue to evolve.
+1
And bands before Zeppelin as well.

This thread reads like you're mostly a bunch of Kiss fans who are still pissed about Beth.
Huh?
There has been plenty of talk about 60's and 70's bands that were probably the beginnings of Heavy Metal and lots of talk about Led Zeppelin.
There has been talk on this thread referencing William S Burroughs books written in 1959 & 1962 that reference The Heavy Metal Kid.
Also, references to articles by rock critic Lester Bangs who used the term associated to some bands from the late 60's to early 70's.
These are things that Gene Simmons might have read when he was in college, but other than that Kiss has nothing to do with anything in this thread.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Joe Ty