First metal band?

LInk Wray with "Rumble" from 1958. Here's a video from '84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIHHSlhBL7U

CP/M User said:

I always thought Psychedelic music lead to metal music - just a thought though cause Psychedelic was perhaps happening in 1966 in groups like The Byrds, The Yardbirds & even Pink Floyd was doing of it then too.

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I can see the connection there

Sabbath for me.

Magic said:

I have to agree here. I dont see a huge difference between hard rock and metal, but heavy metal has some differences. For example compare Iron Maiden, Hawkwind, or Judas Priest (all heavy metal bands) to Cream, Def Leppard, or Deep Purple (all hard rock bands) and you will see a difference. Heavy metal is LOUD with alot of distortion and long solos compared to hard rock. Hard rock used a blues scale with alot of electric guitars. But even with these distinctions, it is hard to tell a huge difference.

Then if you compare Black Sabbath to these you will see more differences not only in the darker sound of Black Sabbath but the dark lyrics, too. Black Sabbath used the tritone or "devils interval" to give their music a doomy sound, which is what defines death metal.

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Excellent points. A lot of people nowadays don't think of Van Halen or even Led Zeppelin as heavy metal but back in the early days they generally were. It's like the requirements for being heavy metal evolve whenever new bands set new standards. But to me once metal, always metal.

snakes&ladders said:

...the very first "heavy metal" riff was provided by The KINKS with You really got me!!

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I agree!

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Ekans said:

Sabbath for me.

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I'm in agreement with this. Sabbath is the first true metal band.

I'd say DragonForce as my first metal band ( I got a feeling some people might disagree that they are metal ^^ )
That had me bouncing off the wall for about a month or 2, then I found SOAD and Metallica.
After that I dont know, I just became addicted to it and found more and more metal bands to listen to

Cosmic Harmony said:

I'm in agreement with this. Sabbath is the first true metal band.

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I disagree. Even if the Yardbirds aren't eligible for the title because they played blues influenced rock, I'd say it was Iron Butterfly.

For me the sonics of Heavy Metal developed from 1966 to 1969, starting with Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Blue Cheer, Mountain, and Led Zeppelin. There were probably a lot of others in that time period I've never heard of but you might include the early proto-punks too (The Stooges, MC5, etc.). Then Black Sabbath came along (and Alice Cooper too, I guess) and stuck a dagger in the heart of the hippy era of proto-metal. Whenever I see some of those VH1 list type programs Black Sabbath gets a lot of mention as the first "true" metal band. I don't have a problem with that. So what's the answer? For me it started with Cream and Hendrix. I get the same head banging, horn throwing, air guitar playing vibe from those two (especially Cream) that I get from Metallica or Iron maiden.

Without reading every single reply so far (yes I am that obtuse), I have to ask the "stupid" question of when the term heavy metal started being used as a style of music in the first place.

Since Steppenwolf is credited for using the terminology in a lot of sources and articles, I'll just give them the nod for the sake of answering the question. Sure, cynics will say John Kay was singing about a motorcycle but lyrics get misinterpreted all the time. Born in the USA is a bombastic, patriotic anthem, right?