"The Roots of Metal" Project

The 1978 demo tape from NWOBHM legends Saxon includes three songs, all of which appeared on their self-titled debut album from the following year i.e. "Big Teaser", "Stallions of the Highway" & "Backs to the Wall". None of them are genuine metal tunes though, at least not in this early format. Steve Dawson's basslines have that up-tempo heavy metal throb going on but the guitar work sits predominantly in the crunchy, AC/DC-worshipping hard rock space. I remember "Stallions of the Highway" being the most metal song on the "Saxon" album which is a fairly strong indication of the way that record might go down here.

Today's track is Riot's "This Is What I Get" which I regard as being hard rock:

This closes out the "Rock City" album with just the one track receiving a metal tag from me in the early US power metal number "Warrior". The rest of the tracklisting sits in either the hard rock or glam metal (Note: not a metal subgenre) space which consolidates my long-term feelings that Riot weren't a metal band until the 1980's. Tomorrow we'll be starting to take a look at our last 1977 release in Scorpions' classic "Taken by Force" album so please feel free to join in on what promises to be a fairly controversial exercise.

Here's how I would genre-tag the 9 tracks in this Riot album:

1. Desperation - Hard rock/heavy metal

2. Warrior - Heavy metal

3. Rock City - Hard rock/blues rock

4. Overdrive - Hard rock/heavy metal

5. Angel - Hard rock

6. Tokyo Rose - Hard rock/heavy metal

7. Heart of Fire - Hard rock

8. Gypsy Queen - Hard rock/proto-glam metal

9. This Is What I Get - Heavy metal/hard rock

Primary genres: Hard rock, heavy metal

Secondary genres: N/A

With all that, I agree that Rock City is more of a hard rock album, but I can still hear some of their later metal sound, enough to make heavy metal a primary genre here. I look forward to our track-to-track discussion about Scorpions' Taken by Force and my track-by-track genre analysis that will follow...

This morning's track is Scorpions' "Steamrock Fever" which I'd suggest sits somewhere between heavy metal & hard rock, just enough to qualify as metal though:

This morning's track is Scorpions' "We Burn The Sky" which I regard as being hard rock:

This morning's track is Scorpions' "We Burn The Sky" which I regard as being hard rock:

This is my favorite Scorps song, largely because despite being closer to hard rock, its epic vibes are very metal ballad central.

One of my favorite Scorpions songs too! This perfect 70s hard rock/metal tune should've had more attention than the band's other popular slow songs in my opinion.

This morning's track is Scorpions' "I've Got To Be Free" which I regard as being hard rock:

Today's track is Scorpions' "The Riot of Your Time" which I regard as being hard rock:

Also, I checked out the 1978 single-track "Outer Space" demo tape from Swedish heavy metal outfit Spitfire this morning & was surprised to discover that it's close enough to traditional doom metal to justify being tagged that way.

This morning's track is Scorpions' "The Sails of Charon" which certainly has shredding metallic lead guitar work but the riffs ultimately still tie it to hard rock:

Today's track is Scorpions' "Your Light" which I'd suggest is hard rock:

I investigated the "Rehearsal (1978)" recordings from Los Angeles four-piece Tyrant this week & found that the thirteen-song demo more than qualifies as metal. Tyrant would famously change their moniker to Saint Vitus shortly afterwards (which was very a good move given the twenty-four other Tyrant's listed on Metal Archives) but I'd suggest that this is actually a genuine traditional doom metal release with hints at stoner metal & heavy metal. These recordings would later appear in identical format on the "Demo 1979" release (pictured below):

Just checked out the 1978 "Oh, što te volim, joj" debut album from Boznian outfit Vatreni poljubac. I found that there were a few genuine metal tracks included but it was significantly more hard rock than it is metal so it didn't qualify for inclusion here.

This morning's track is Scorpions' "He's a Woman - She's a Man" which is a clear heavy metal song in my opinion:

This morning's track is Scorpion's "Born To Touch Your Feelings" which is once again hard rock.

That leaves the "Taken by Force" album with just the two metal tracks in my opinion which is not enough to qualify as a metal release in this exercise. Tomorrow we'll be beginning a new release in the 1978 debut album "Sinister Soldiers" from Chicago's Sorcery.

Also, I gave Scorpions' 1978 double live album "Tokyo Tapes" a revisit this week but found that it's also a hard rock record with only a few genuine metal tracks included.

I just finished checking out Yngwie Malmsteen's 1978 "Powerhouse" demo which he recorded when he was just 15 years old. The level of virtuosity & creativity he was had achieved as such a young age is absolutely astounding. It's a combination of heavy metal & hard rock instrumentals with hints at neoclassical metal. You'll likely recognise some tracks as being early versions of his later works too.

Here's how I would genre-tag the 8 tracks in Scorpions' Taken by Force:

1. Steamrock Fever - Hard rock

2. We'll Burn the Sky - Hard rock/heavy metal

3. I've Got To Be Free - Hard rock

4. The Riot of Your Time - Hard rock

5. The Sails of Charon - Hard rock/heavy metal

6. Your Light - Hard rock/heavy metal

7. He’s a Woman, She’s a Man - Hard rock/heavy metal

8. Born to Touch Your Feelings - Hard rock

Primary genres: Hard rock, heavy metal

Secondary genres: N/A

With all that, I agree that Taken by Force is more of a hard rock album, but I consider half the amount of tracks metal enough to make heavy metal a primary genre for the album. The metal songs also happen to be my favorite highlights of the album, which may caused my view on the album to look a bit biased, but it's just pure coincidence. I still like the hard rock songs, with the only part I truly can't stand being the final third of "Born to Touch Your Feelings".

This morning we kick-off a new release in Sorcery's "Sinister Soldiers: debut album from 1978 which opens with "Arachnid (The Dark King)" which I'd suggest should qualify as metal & sits predominantly in the stoner metal space.

This is an album I've always meant to get round to, but have never managed to.

Yeah, a typical example of early metal, still with plenty of rock influence. I get the stoner classification, but I must admit that I'm not completely convinced by it. That riff that they repeat at the end, most definitely stoner and if the whole track had sounded like that, then yes. I did enjoy it, though.

It actually took my quite a few revisits before I decided on stoner metal over heavy metal Sonny so it was a close call that could have gone either way really. I don't hear the traditional doom metal sound there though, despite many people making that claim.

Today's track is Sorcery's "Fly The Sky" which I'd suggest is hard rock:

Hard rock with a side dish of heavy psych for me, Daniel.

Today's song is Sorcery's "Sugar Sweet Lady (Debbie's Song)" which I'd suggest is a psychedelic rock tune:

This morning's track is Sorcery's "Last Good-Bye" which I'd suggest is best associated with progressive rock:

Today we take a look at Sorcery's "Slippin Away (For K.E.R.)" which I'd suggest sits somewhere between heavy psych & hard rock:

This morning's track is Sorcery's "Snowshit" which I'd suggest is heavy psych: