"The Roots of Metal" Project

This morning's track is Motorhead's "Keep Us On The Road" which I'd suggest is hard rock:

Today we're looking at Motorhead's "The Watcher" which is a hard rock tune:

This morning track is Motorhead's "The Train Kept A-Rollin" which is yet again a hard rock track which sees us closing out the "Motorhead" album without me having identified a single metal tune on an album that generally seems to command a heavy metal tag from most parties. There's not even enough metal included for a secondary tag in my opinion.

Tomorrow we'll be starting on a brand new release in Riot's 1977 debut album "Rock City".

I checked out the 1977 "Doin' Our Thing at the Live House" double live album from Japan's Murasaki over the last couple of days & found it to be a hard rock release with progressive rock & heavy metal influences. There are three songs that I'd suggest should qualify as metal though with "Double Dealing Woman" & "Doomsday" sitting right in the middle between metal & rock & the excellent cover version of Deep Purple's "Fireball" managing to reignite the double kick-driven flame of the original very nicely.

This morning track is Motorhead's "The Train Kept A-Rollin" which is yet again a hard rock track which sees us closing out the "Motorhead" album without me having identified a single metal tune on an album that generally seems to command a heavy metal tag from most parties. There's not even enough metal included for a secondary tag in my opinion.

i would have to agree, Daniel. Even Lemmy himself always said the 'head were a rock band and he didn't like being tagged as metal (even though they sometimes were). It's still a great album though and I would dual tag it as hard rock / garage rock.

This morning we're beginning a brand new release in Riot's 1977 debut album "Rock City" with the opening track "Desperation" being a clear hard rock number:

Also, yesterday I checked out the 1977 third album "Charge" from Japan's Bow Wow which I regard as being a hard rock record. It did have one track in opener "Jet Jive" that I'd suggest sits in the grey area between hard rock & heavy metal though.

Today's track is Riot's "Warrior. The first US power metal track? It think it may well be actually.

I also finished off my investigation of 1977's more underground releases with Red's "Rider In The Sky" (or self-titled depending on what you're reading) E.P. which is generally referred to as an early NWOBHM release. It's not one as two of the three songs aren't even hard rock. It's a progressive rock release & not a bad one at all actually. The song "Thrash" qualifies as heavy metal though in my opinion & you can clearly hear the Iron Maiden gallop on that track at times.

I also investigated NWOBHM legends Angel Witch's 1978 demo tape & found it to be a total metalfest, perhaps the most extreme release I've found in this exercise to date actually with all seven songs qualifying as genuine metal. It was also pushing the whole Satanic imagery thing earlier than anything else I've encountered to date. It includes early versions of "Sorceress" & "Devil's Tower" which both appeared on their seminal debut album two years later.

I also investigated NWOBHM legends Angel Witch's 1978 demo tape & found it to be a total metalfest, perhaps the most extreme release I've found in this exercise to date actually with all seven songs qualifying as genuine metal. It was also pushing the whole Satanic imagery thing earlier than anything else I've encountered to date. It includes early versions of "Sorceress" & "Devil's Tower" which both appeared on their seminal debut album two years later.

Is that the one that kicks off with Baphomet, Daniel? If so, then yes, that is an absolute classic metal demo in my opinion. They officially released that demo in 2017 to help raise funds for the victims of the Grenfell tower block fire disaster - AW always were a class act.

Yeah, that’s the one. “Sorceress” is close enough to traditional doom metal in my opinion while I’d suggest that “Devil’s Tower” is worthy of progressive metal status given the complexity in structure. There’s also some sections that border on speed/thrash metal without quite getting there. The vocals are dodgy as shit though. Love how they so blatantly & confidently mispronounce “Baphomet”. :)

I investigated the earliest recording from Californian heavy metallers Cirith Ungol this morning. It's an eleven-track 1978 demo tape that's gone on to become known as "The Orange Album" over the years. Most people seem to be tagging this one as a heavy metal release but I'd suggest that there's actually most stoner rock than anything else here. In saying that, there's definitely enough metal included in a good half of the tracklisting to warrant a dual tagging with heavy metal. Hell, there's even a genuine speed metal song included here in "Witchdance".

This morning's song is the title track from Riot's "Rock City" album, a number that I consider to be an early example of glam metal.

Also, I checked out the 1978 three-song demo tape from NWOBHM outfit Dawnwatcher this morning but found no metal there. They took a proggy hard rock approach rather than a metal one.

The 1978 demo tape from Ohio's Fury doesn't contain any metal either. It's purely a hard rock release.

This morning's track is Riot's "Overdrive" which I'd suggest is hard rock:

I checked out the 1978 demo tape from underground NWOBHM act Hammerhead today & it really surprised me with its mix of sounds. In fact, I'd suggest that a dual hard rock & traditional doom metal primary is warranted here along with a stoner metal secondary which makes it the first release that I've awarded a doom metal primary to in the Roots of Metal project thus far.

This morning's track is Riot's "Angel" which I regard as being an early example of glam metal:

I checked out the 1978 self-titled sophomore album from German solo act Jutta Weinhold this morning but didn't even find any hard rock, let alone metal. It's just your stock-standard generic rock record for mine.

This morning's track is Riot's "Tokyo Rose" which I'd suggest is hard rock:

I checked out the 1978 "Extranjero" album from La Tierra Prometida this morning but found no metal or rock whatsoever. They were still a traditional Mexican folk band at that point.

I investigated the 1978 "Rock & Roll Power at 25th Hour" sophomore album from Germany's Mass this morning. It's primarily a hard rock record but there are a couple of tracks that are close enough to heavy metal included.

I also took a listen to Plasmatics' 1978 "Butcher Baby" E.P. but found it to be predominantly punk rock.

This morning's track is Riot's "Heart of Fire" which is once again a hard rock tune:

I revisited the terrible 1978 self-titled debut album from Los Angeles' Quiet Riot this morning & confirmed to myself it's an early example of the glam metal sound. The presence of a young Randy Rhoads can't help them I'm afraid. It's a shocker. The opening track is close enough to qualify as heavy metal though.

This morning's track is Riot's "Gypsy Queen" which is... you guessed it... hard rock:

I explored the 1978 debut album "Banana" from Spain's Salvador Dominguez this morning but found nothing resembling metal or even hard rock. I'd suggest that it's more of a soft rock record with progressive rock & jazz-rock influences.