Zeppelin are often cited as an influence by early metal pioneers. They provided a bridge between blues and heavy rock. I think it's music journalists more than musicians who called Zeppelin metal, or musicians who don't play rock music at all.
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Do you consider Led Zeppelin a METAL band?
- Thread starter MAJOR METAL
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Led Zeppelin fit the early definition of "Heavy Metal" hard rock bands. They are NOT "Metal." They are, however, one of the greatest bands of all time. 
If making being openly gay cool isn't metal, I don't know what is. : D
Doner Designs
Steve Doner
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Interesting question. I have a rock playlist on my ipod but also have what I consider sub-genres that only include certain artists. My sub-genres under rock are blues-rock, progressive, pop, singer-songwriter, metal and Christian. "Rock" includes all of those. Dream Theater and Led Zeppelin are both on my progressive and metal subgroup lists. Deep Purple might be on both as well. I'm almost 60, so my taste in "metal" is fairly limited/selective and is probably closer to being hard rock in the minds of younger folks. Kutless (a Christian band) is also on my metal list along with LZ, Metallica, Dream Theater and a very few others. Dream Theater was the entry drug that got me to take a closer look at metal, but for me nobody really comes close to measuring up to DT.
Of course my sub-genres mean nothing besides lists of bands and songs that (to me) mix reasonably well on shuffle-play mode.
Of course my sub-genres mean nothing besides lists of bands and songs that (to me) mix reasonably well on shuffle-play mode.
Both Page and Plant have gotten pissy with reporters/journalists when LZ is referred to as "metal". In fact, I remember Eddie Trunk once stating on "That Metal Show", that the reason Page-Plant-Jones all refused to be guests on the show was because of its title.
EDIT: Apparently, Ritchie Blackmore refused to be a guest for the same reason.
Coincidentally we're watching Shrek the Third & they used the Immigrant Song, which to me is their heaviest song:
I've had this argument a number of times with younger folks. Well, younger than me(58) I guess....
The term HEAVY METAL was coined around the time of the Deep Purple album of the same name in the early seventies and at that time was used to describe hard rock acts that used alot of distortion and/or dark themes.
I remember Alice Cooper, Grand Funk, Uriah Heep, Purple, Zeppelin and of course, Sabbath being described as " Heavy metal" in those times and nobody argued about it.
In the 80s, Priest, Scorpions, Dokken and thier ilk usurped the term and all those "old" bands were relegated to "hard rock".
Hell, even your Motley Crues,Rat, and Poison folks considered themselves metal until a later bunch tagged hair on front of the term.
Scince then every generation has claimed some sole ownership of the title and even divied it up into a plethora of sub-genres. Speed metal, death metal, goth metal, my little pony metal.....cripes!
Maybe only Sabbath has escaped the second-guessing over the years.
I personally find the entire thing hilarious.
The term HEAVY METAL was coined around the time of the Deep Purple album of the same name in the early seventies and at that time was used to describe hard rock acts that used alot of distortion and/or dark themes.
I remember Alice Cooper, Grand Funk, Uriah Heep, Purple, Zeppelin and of course, Sabbath being described as " Heavy metal" in those times and nobody argued about it.
In the 80s, Priest, Scorpions, Dokken and thier ilk usurped the term and all those "old" bands were relegated to "hard rock".
Hell, even your Motley Crues,Rat, and Poison folks considered themselves metal until a later bunch tagged hair on front of the term.
Scince then every generation has claimed some sole ownership of the title and even divied it up into a plethora of sub-genres. Speed metal, death metal, goth metal, my little pony metal.....cripes!
Maybe only Sabbath has escaped the second-guessing over the years.
I personally find the entire thing hilarious.
Songs about wizards and dragons and whatnot? Just another reason Led Zepp was metal.
Coz they were. Maybe in hindsight they're not to metal, but they had enough weight and influence of other early metal bands they absolutely qualify. Does that make someone who's really into Led Zepp a "metalhead?" Nope, because as much as they were, they also weren't.
They were an important stepping stone on the path and helped to create the defination of a genre that hadn't been invented yet. "Proto-Metal" is a fine way to describe it, but that's just sort of a silly term without any real grounding.
I'd consider Led Zeppelin more metal than a lot of '80s "heavy metal" bands.
He was't openly gay for years, but yet he still managed to translate a certain subset of homosexual clothing fetishists into de rigueur heavy metal fashion, so much so that when he did come out, most of us couldn't see the forest through the trees.
I think it's funny that no one ever thought to put together before he made his announcement. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.
Sounds metal to me right up until about 2:20 when the blues takes over and SRV would have been right at home jamming until it goes back to the metal groove at 3:40 before ending abruptly.
Led Zep, Deep Purple, etc. are the "grandfathers" of what is called metal. Just because there are "heavier" genre's now does not change what these bands were.
watch Metal Evolution. This is a TV Documentary series that explains the evolution of metal. Deep Purple was at the very beginning of this genre, thought are are many branches since then.
This means they were and still are "Metal". Time and new bands do not change this.
Priest should be in your first group. They broke out about a year after Sabbath.
DiabolusInMusic
Functionless Art is Merely Tolerated Vandalism
Black Sabbath and Zeppelin were two of the original metal bands. By today's standards, they are considered rock but to not acknowledge their role in metal is absurd. Metal had to evolve from somewhere and Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin are some of the bands that begin to bridge the blues into heavy music. Metal has evolved away from the blues and has taken more from classical, particularly in the 80s, so, by today's standards, we associate them with rock based on their obvious blues roots.
I just couldn't "dig it"
What with the whiny vocals and all the acoustic songs.. Although the drumming was "far out" i just couldn't relate to it..
Zep was a band my older brother and his friends listened to in a smoke filled van..
I wonder if ISIS won their law suit against them for the Stairway to heaven
What with the whiny vocals and all the acoustic songs.. Although the drumming was "far out" i just couldn't relate to it..
Zep was a band my older brother and his friends listened to in a smoke filled van..
I wonder if ISIS won their law suit against them for the Stairway to heaven
Don't have a lot to add that hasn't been said, except to point out that LZ evolved over their career. In the beginning they were a blues-rock act picking up where Cream left off. They developed more of the hard rock sound that was the heavy metal of the time, along with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple and other 70s bands like that. Metal evolved since then and LZ doesn't sound much like what followed, so retroactively people might drop them from the roster, but I don't think that was the perception at the time. A lot of what 70s and 80s teens thought was pretty heavy music (like Judas Priest or Twisted Sister) practically sounds like pop compared to modern metal. Which may explain why metal has become more and more of a niche genre that fewer and fewer people listen to.
They had definite metal songs like "immigrant song", "moby dick", etc... they knew how to crank it up. But I wouldn't call them a "metal" band as that's too limiting. Most metal fans appreciate the wide repetoire they had anyways....
In 1969 there was no such thing as Metal except as a lyric in a Steppenwolf song. In 1969 all this genre-izing of band music didn't exist and it created one of most explosive and creative eras in music as bands as diverse as the Association, King Crimson, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull and the Who were all just "rock" music. I don't think of Zep as metal or even proto-metal but within the historical context, J.P's use of layered guitars and J.B's drums definitely pushed rock in a heavier direction and were considered heavy by the standards of 1969. It also wasn't until the second album that the "heavy" really kicked in with songs like Heartbreaker and Whole Lotta Love though Dazed and Confused from LZ 1 certainly had a big sound.
I would posit that the genre we now call metal started with Black Sabbath which was what? 1970? I would also posit that The Who gave birth to arena rock and punk rock with the same windmill strum of a guitar.
Before someone gets after me for over simplifying. Nobody invents anything in music. Nothing comes from nothing; it always has an antecedent. It's like asking, did Beethoven invent symphonic music? No, but it certainly changed direction after him but before that Bach took the strict baroque forms of the melodious Telemann and gave us new ways to think of harmony which Handel then turned into the Sonata form which Mozart elevated to high art and then Beethoven came along and added about 30 members to the orchestra and some double basses and gave us dat-dat-dat DAH! and nothing was ever the same again. I don't know if Page and friends had quite the same impact on the music world; we'll have to wait another couple hundred years to sort that out but the fact that there's no musical instrument forum, guitar, bass or drums, where the names Zeppelin, Page, Bonham or John Paul Jones don't come up at least weekly after 47 years shows some lasting impact and influence.
I would posit that the genre we now call metal started with Black Sabbath which was what? 1970? I would also posit that The Who gave birth to arena rock and punk rock with the same windmill strum of a guitar.
Before someone gets after me for over simplifying. Nobody invents anything in music. Nothing comes from nothing; it always has an antecedent. It's like asking, did Beethoven invent symphonic music? No, but it certainly changed direction after him but before that Bach took the strict baroque forms of the melodious Telemann and gave us new ways to think of harmony which Handel then turned into the Sonata form which Mozart elevated to high art and then Beethoven came along and added about 30 members to the orchestra and some double basses and gave us dat-dat-dat DAH! and nothing was ever the same again. I don't know if Page and friends had quite the same impact on the music world; we'll have to wait another couple hundred years to sort that out but the fact that there's no musical instrument forum, guitar, bass or drums, where the names Zeppelin, Page, Bonham or John Paul Jones don't come up at least weekly after 47 years shows some lasting impact and influence.
Zep, Metal??? are you mental? they're just a great rock and roll band. Geese proto-metal, what the hell term is that? Metal is metal and stands on it's own. Of course it's practitioners listened to what came before them, took what they liked and moved on to create something a bit different if not necessarily new. No need to waste bandwidth debating if Zep was metal, proto-metal, hard rock, prog or whatever. I grew up with Zep and a bunch of other awesome bands (MC5, Stooges, Sonics Rendezvous Band, Mountain, Sabbath, Trower, all of Motown, etc) - Zep's just another great R&R band. The term used in the day was Album Rock
wintremute
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I consider Led Zeppelin to be Hard Rock. Hopefully, no one will be offended.
So they pulled you under?
So they pulled you under?
Based on todays multi-variant, multi genre world of music... No.... At the time Steppenwolf had recently coined the term Heavy-Metal and it was being picked up as a descriptive way to color heavier based rock. I thought at the time the term was very "poppish" sounding. I didn't like it. My album collection was divvied up in categories and the Zep fell into my "Acid Rock" section along with Uriah Heep, Deep Purple & Slade.... But by todays standards the Zep being called heavy metal is like calling a Chevy Bel-Air a luxury automobile.
