Yeah. Here's another rant.
I've ranted about this one before, as it's yet another thing that sticks in my craw.
It's about the first wave of metal, and how -against the tides of history- so many narbs have managed to become absolutely convinced that most of the sacred first wave of heavy metal was, in fact, not metal.
And if that's not bad enough, many have had the nerve to claim that metal didn't start until the '80s, and even that the books are on their side.
I am writing this to destroy some of these claims, and will be organizing each section of this rant by the level of idiocy of the claim I'm debunking.
SECTION I: UNDERSTANDABLE MISTAKES (and debatables) TO MILD IDIOCY
I'm starting this off with a band that is seldom thought of as metal in this day and age. Grand Funk Railroad was a hard rock group from Michigan, whose brutal fuzz-driven sound has influenced such groups as Van Halen, Twisted Sister, Heavy Metal Kids, Guns N' Roses, The Golden Gods, and Black 'N Blue. During their time, they were classed by many as part of the 'heavy sound,' alongside groups like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin (both of whom will be covered later in this rant).
To back my claims up, here are a few sources:
3. The book "Rock eras" by James M. Curtis.
5. EDIT: I recently came across an interview with Grand Funk drummer Don Brewer, in which he says "We were a three-piece heavy metal kind of a band in the late '60s, early '70s."
The clip can be found here.
And here are some song examples:
3. "Paranoid"
Now that that's done, let's move on to Led Zeppelin. I'm not ashamed to say that if you don't think of Led Zeppelin as -at the very least- a pioneer of metal, then I think you're a mild moron. I'll tell you why.
Led Zeppelin is one of the most well-established members of this genre.
Their being part of metal history is practically written in stone (or probably steel, actually). If I read the paper, and there's an article on Zeppelin, metal will be mentioned. Likewise, if I'm listening to the radio, and the history of metal is brought up, Zeppelin will be mentioned. I'm not even making this up, either.
Naturally, it came as piss in my cereal when I found internet people whose heads were so far up their bums as to obscure the simple facts about Zeppelin to them.
SECTION II: MEDIUM IDIOCY TO UPPER-MIDDLE IDIOCY
First up in this section is KISS. I know what you're thinking, and if I'm right, so are you.
Yes. KISS does, in fact, suck big donkey dick. However, no matter how shitty they are, they're still a metal band. Not only that, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if KISS's image (blatantly based on artists like Arthur Brown and Alice Cooper) was heavily influential to black metal.
Want proof?
Le gasp!
Enough of that, though. Now it's time for a band that doesn't suck.
Honestly, I can sort of understand why some don't consider Blue Oyster Cult metal.
It's not that often that a metal group gets relatively soft hits like "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Burnin' for You."
However, if you know more than that about BOC, it's plain GARGLMRFL to consider them any onespecific genre and not metal. What I mean by that is that BOC were (and still are) well known for genre bending. It's odd to call them a hard rock band, and then say that they weren't a metal band.
As a matter of fact, I've recently done the math (badly) on their genres.
According to my (shitty) calculations, they are:
About 44.5% Hard Rock
About 42.5% Heavy Metal
About 11.5% Psychedelic Rock/Pop
About 1.5% Progressive Rock/Heavy Prog
Now, obviously, since you may have been HURR enough to deny that BOC is metal in the first place, you may disagree with many of the songs included as 'metal' material. Don't worry, though. Plankton.
For further evidence of BOC's metalness, read:
1. Their website.
2. Almost any Rolling Stone review of BOC.
On we go!
SECTION III: YOU'RE A BIG FAT IDIOT, AND I HATE YOU
Black Sabbath is a metal band, dumbfuck.
