The Yearly Metal Project (With a Twist - See inside): 1982

If you wanted too I'm sure you could find 20-30 more Great bands from that period (perhaps even from each year) who played heavy psych blues...but overall this is a good list and worth checking out the videos from!

Lord Baltimore on being the first band named heavy metal I have no idea bout that..I just know that Heavy Metal was a term created by Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild...:D Even if they were the first to be called it...Blue Cheer were still before them :p But yes, Lord Baltimore is still a great band no doubt about it!
 
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Listened to the first Queen this morning. Pretty solid album, but definitely one of their weaker albums. They're one of those bands who had a rocky start but immediately pick up the pace with their next album. I do find it impressive though how early they found their sound. It's pretty much all there, the vocal choirs, the overdubbed guitars, different members singing. It's not like a lot of the other early albums we've seen here, where the band is still in development mode. This is undoubtedly Queen, they just need to get their songwriting chops up.

Speaking of bands in development mode, I'm currently listening to the Thin Lizzy album. This is definitely closer to the classic Lizzy, especially the album artwork! A much better album than the previous one, but still not Jailbreak quality yet. It does have Rocker though, which is a great tune, and their legendary rendition of Whiskey In the Jar is a single from around this period and is included on the CD versions.
 
SixesAlltheway said:
Teamrock.com did something similiar to this topic just a few days ago...they must be secretly watching our thread ;) But here's their part 1 of songs that forged metal (apparently guided by Lee Dorrian from Cathedral)...

http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-05-13/songs-that-forged-metal-part1-1964-1978
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Geddy Lee stands by Blue Cheer as the first Metal band. You can really hear the Rush influence on Summertime Blues. To take that one step further, here they are covering it sometime in the early 00s:


I have to say though, I would've liked to see 1974 Rush play it, much more fitting for a younger Geddy Lee and John Rutsey on drums.

You Really Got Me is such a bizarre song when you think about it. Sure it's extremely tame by today's standards, but if I had to guess I'd say 1966 at the earliest, but it's actually 1964. For reference, The Beatles released A Hard Day's Night that year. It's got such a heavy aggressive beat and riff, with a pretty electric guitar solo.

Cool article!
 
1974
Aerosmith - Get Your Wings
Bad Company - Bad Company
Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties
Budgie - In For the Kill
Deep Purple - Burn/Stormbringer
Elf - Carolina County Ball
Hawkwind - Hall of the Mountain Grill
Judas Preist - Rocka Rolla
King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black/Red
Kiss - Kiss/Hotter Than Hell
Montrose - Paper Money
Queen - Queen II/Sheer Heart Attack
Rush - Rush
Scorpions - Fly to the Rainbow
Sweet - Sweet Fanny Adams/Desolation Boulevard
Thin Lizzy - Nightlife
UFO - Phenomenon
Uriah Heep - Wonderworld

1974 is a huge year for debut albums. We have debuts from future legends Kiss, Judas Priest, and Rush. Also classic rock favorites Bad Company. We also have future classics from newer bands Queen, Aerosmith, and UFO (after disappearing for a couple years). Deep Purple returns with two brand new members: vocalist David Coverdale and singer Glenn Hughes. We also have what is supposedly one of the best Hawkwind albums, looking forward to that one.

For me, the most exciting album on the list is Rocka Rolla. While it's a far cry from their later work, the addition of Judas Priest signals the start of truly Heavy Metal bands, not just hard rock bands that dabble in Metal.

Lots of cool albums here!

Also worth noting that this is the first year without a Black Sabbath album, who were lost somewhere in a mountain of cocaine.
 
Mosh said:
Listened to the first Queen this morning. Pretty solid album, but definitely one of their weaker albums. They're one of those bands who had a rocky start but immediately pick up the pace with their next album. I do find it impressive though how early they found their sound. It's pretty much all there, the vocal choirs, the overdubbed guitars, different members singing. It's not like a lot of the other early albums we've seen here, where the band is still in development mode. This is undoubtedly Queen, they just need to get their songwriting chops up.
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Last time I listened, I thought the second album was weaker than the debut. Queen has a well-developed sound of its own, while much of Queen II sounds like practice for their later style (I used to like songs like "March of the Black Queen", but it's just too unfocused and formless for me now). Sheer Heart Attack is an improvement on both; the first two songs already show the band in full flight.

That said, I'm not really sure what Queen's best albums are. They always had a tendency to mix cool stuff with serious lapses in taste.

Speaking of bands in development mode, I'm currently listening to the Thin Lizzy album. This is definitely closer to the classic Lizzy, especially the album artwork! A much better album than the previous one, but still not Jailbreak quality yet. It does have Rocker though, which is a great tune, and their legendary rendition of Whiskey In the Jar is a single from around this period and is included on the CD versions.
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I think that one's as good as anything they did. I like the folksy vibe a lot. "Little Girl in Bloom" is one of their best songs.
 
It's been awhile since I listened to Queen II but I remember it being better, though I'm not particularly fond of either. Sheer Heart Attack is one of the best though.
 
Queen I and Queen II are two of my favorite Queen albums. Top to bottom awesomeness on both. For all the great stuff they later did, I'm not sure they ever really topped this:
 
As far as Queen goes, the most I can say is that there are a few worthwhile songs on Queen II (Father to Son, Ogre Battle) and Sheer Heart Attack (Brighton Rock, Stone Cold Crazy).

But there's a lot of other great stuff from 1974 that I look forward to (re-)listening to later.
 
Some good albums so far. I'm worried I might become a BOC fan after this. :D Secret Treaties was really fantastic. It had a similar vibe to the earlier albums, but with more interesting songs and traits of the BOC I'm more familiar with. I can see how this would be the favored album among fans. Hoping it gets even better than that though.

Get Your Wings is also a significant step above the Aerosmith debut. I've been reminded of how much I used to really love Aerosmith. They've got some great rockers, that still hold up for me. I forgot all about Train Kept A Rollin! Some great deeper cuts on there as well, such as Seasons of Wither.

The two Deep Purple albums are interesting. A lot more traditional/straightforward blues and more less heavy moments. David Coverdale is a good addition though and he doesn't sound like a Plant ripoff. Burn is a great track, not sure if there's much else I'd come back to from this period.
 
Mosh said:
Get Your Wings is also a significant step above the Aerosmith debut. I've been reminded of how much I used to really love Aerosmith. They've got some great rockers, that still hold up for me. I forgot all about Train Kept A Rollin! Some great deeper cuts on there as well, such as Seasons of Wither.
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I've never been much of an Aerosmith fan, and I rarely choose to listen to them, but when I do I think, "Actually, this is some pretty enjoyable rock right here." Get Your Wings is neither heavy nor outstanding, but it is enjoyable. Although, interestingly Train and Seasons are my two least favourite tracks on the album.
 
I remember being introduced to Bad Company through my dad's record collection, in which "Rock n Roll Fantasy" was included on a compilation LP with some generic and misguided title like "Heavy Metal Favourites." I also remember being disappointed when I discovered this song was something of an exception in their output, which I mostly find pretty light and mediocre. Re-listening to their debut doesn't persuade me to move away from this assessment. I don't know the answer to this question, so I'm genuinely interested – how important were these guys in the development of British metal?
 
Pand said:
how important were these guys in the development of British metal?
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Not sure. I don't consider them metal but saw this album pop up a couple times when gathering albums for this year. I was very close to cutting, but figured if I was going to keep bands like Aerosmith around I might as well at least include their debut, which has at least become a staple for classic rock stations in the USA.

I pretty much agree with your Bad Company assessment, though Rock n Roll Fantasy is a great song.

First Judas Priest is still pretty mediocre. This was one album where I was hoping that hearing it in its context would help me appreciate it a bit more, but that still wasn't the case. It's a bit behind its time and kind of hard to believe that a good amount of Sad Wings material was already written when this was recorded. And I know this song is popular around here, but I still just don't get Run Of the Mill.
 
Just a thought: in addition to the influence of the big names around or breaking through in this era, there's surely a lot to be said for the significance and originality of the grass roots/pub band scene at the same time. Much like punk, I get the impression early metal gained a strong foothold in the local band circuits in the 70s, particularly in places like London and Birmingham, and its development owes a lot to this, not simply the big names.
 
Any bands you're thinking of in particular? Not familiar with that scene.
 
I don't know individual bands other than the obvious ones who went on to break through as become identified as part of the NWOBHM movement. But I know there was an established scene going on that had a dedicated following by the time it became more widely known. Old style punk and post punk fans I know to this day consider metal fans part of a different alternative scene that they didn't have much to do with.
 
In this scene, do you (or others you know) strictly separate (hard) rock / metal and punk, or bands that are the roots for these movements?

I am inclined to not do this. I was more thinking of one bag, which later separated more and more in different directions.
 
That's how I always saw it too, Foro, but I wasn't there. This is just my impression from reading and seeing documentaries about the early days of NWOBHM and Iron Maiden. Punk is definitely going to be part of this thread.
 
I don't remember it, I was a baby! I'm thinking more about the scenes themselves, the bands, their culture and fanbase, rather than the music that inspired those bands. Maybe there was crossover with the punk scene in the early days and in bigger cities, but the old punk fans I know - mostly from the North/Scotland - really don't think much of metal, and never did. I assumed that's what was going on with Bruce's 'punk is rubbish' comment the other year, because it got a bit of banter and rivalry going and grabbed some headlines.
 
I am still trying to find out more about the scene you are talking about. At the end scenes consist of bands (I am wondering which bands they might be), so we could try to think of some, but I'd also like to know where and when to place this scene.

I am not per se searching for the bands that inspired the scene that you mean (hey, that rhymes), but do you mean a scene with bands that played pubs (and such) in a time before punk got more and more popular, so, let's say roughly before 1975?

Is it a scene that may have influenced both punk and hard rock/metal bands?

Brigantium said:
Just a thought: in addition to the influence of the big names around or breaking through in this era, there's surely a lot to be said for the significance and originality of the grass roots/pub band scene at the same time. Much like punk, I get the impression early metal gained a strong foothold in the local band circuits in the 70s, particularly in places like London and Birmingham, and its development owes a lot to this, not simply the big names.
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Well, perhaps these are the bands @SixesAlltheway knows dozens of?
 
I think Iron Maiden's brand of Metal is a definite reaction to punk, but not necessarily in a way that is flattering to punk. Take this documentary for example:


The statement seems to be that you can have the aggression and energy of punk while still possessing a level of musicality. So it makes sense that fans of punk might not care for NWOBHM and vice versa, but there's a bit of a symbiotic relationship in the two styles.

We're a few years ahead of ourselves though. :p
 
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