Trying to come up with a Heavy Metal Timeline

[travelnjones]

Hey

This is a post for metal lovers. I am working on a project for my blog that is a timeline of heavy metal. I am looking for early/proto metal bands that you can point me too. I am willing to check out anything as long as it is before 1975. Its at that point that the story of metal becomes pretty clear and documented.

I am trying to find the roots of the genre. Which most people will say Birmingham England - Black Sabbath. Which is fine but I am looking for the early stuff that is before and immediately after.

Some bands that are on my radar are Blue Cheer, Iron Claw, Sir Lord Baltimore, Dust. does anyone have others I can check out?

Thanks

 

[Proletar]

Black Widow. Not really metal, but with some satanic messages none the less.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

If you don't already have them:

MC5
Steppenwolf
Vanilla Fudge

edit: forgot about Grand Funk Railroad.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heavy_metal_bands

Might help you as it lists the years the bands were active and they each have their own page. Finding recordings if you are looking might be a challenge for some of them.

 

[travelnjones]

The one problem with wiki is how accurate it is not. There are a lot of pychadelic rock bands that are missing some of the key ingredients of metal listed here. Taking even something like Hendrix into account it isn't really metal. He has one cover that comes pretty close. But there is something missing

For me it may be the counter counterculture element. Metal was never an outgrowth of the hippy movement but rather a negative reaction to it. Also metal has elements of classical/baroque that is missing. So even something like Cream which is certainly heavy doesn't really feel metal.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Hmm. Well you said you are looking for roots. I wouldn't consider any of my suggestions to be full heavy metal(like Sabbath in '70), but their respective sounds seems integral to the development. Though I admit I don't have much experience with this music in it's early stages.

I suppose you could look at the suggested artists on last.fm for the ones you already have.


With that said, I came across Lucifer's Friend (1970). I would put it before the others I listed.

 

[MichiganJFrog]

Link Wray invented the power chord. The Yardbirds really got things going, though. When they had Beck and Page in the same lineup, they were pretty much heavy metal.

 

[travelnjones]

I am aware of link wray but don't know what to make of him. I will have to find some of his older work i usually see videos of his later live stuff.

Black Widow is odd, some of it has a real evil sound on the organs and then it comes in with the horns and sounds like the prog band Gentle Giant. One nice discovery was a group called Toad that was linked to the Black Widow youtube video I saw. They were even engineered by Martin Birch.