"The Roots of Metal" Project
Little of both for me.
Same here for me. More specifically:
1. Loving You Sunday Morning - Hard rock
2. Another Piece of Meat - Hard rock/heavy metal
3. Always Somewhere - Soft rock
4. Coast to Coast - Hard rock/progressive rock
5. Can't Get Enough - Heavy metal/speed metal/proto-thrash
6. Is There Anybody There? - Reggae rock/hard rock/heavy metal
7. Lovedrive - Heavy metal/hard rock
8. Holiday - Hard rock
Primary genres: Hard rock, heavy metal
Secondary genres: N/A
There is a touch of metal in “Another Piece of Meat” but nowhere near enough for a primary tag in my opinion. The pre-verse riff sounds like Guns ‘n’ Roses while the verse could well have been taken from a Whitesnake record. It’s only really a brief dalliance with bottom-string chugging at the end of the chorus that sits in metal territory so it’s just an influence rather than a senior player for mine.
I dunno where you’re hearing any metal in “Is There Anybody There?” though Andi. It’s just crunchy, open-string hard rock chords over reggae rhythms. Where’s the metal there?
OK, so let's really throw a cat amongst the pigeons then. I revisited Motorhead's classic 1979 "Overkill" sophomore album yesterday (my favourite of their studio albums) & can confidently say that it's got very little to do with metal. In fact, the only metal on the whole record is the double-kick drumming on the legendary opening title track which is significant enough in the way the song plays out to see it receiving a speed metal tag. The rest of the record is the very definition of rock 'n' roll though. The sheer volume of RYM votes for metal primaries on almost every track on the record is staggering to be honest. I dunno what these people think metal is but there's no theoretical basis for taking that position as far as I can see.
Here are two more that I checked out yesterday:
Thin Lizzy's 1979 ninth full-length is pretty clearly a hard rock record with no metal included.
Quiet Riot's 1979 "Quiet Riot II" sophomore album is a glam/hard rock record with glam metal tendencies in parts. Nothing I'd be comfortable awarding a metal tag to though.
We have another successful entrant into our chronological list of metal releases in 1979's "From the Black World" one-off album from Japan's Nokemono. This was one of the more obvious candidates actually & I tagged as follows:
A1 Run Away - Speed metal
A2 Terrible Night - Heavy metal
A3 閉ざされた街 - Heavy metal
A4 失われた愛 - Heavy metal
A5 Big Wednesday - Hard rock
B1 From the Black World - Heavy metal
B2 Back Street - Heavy metal
B3 灰に消えた過去 - Progressive rock
B4 蟻地獄 - Heavy metal
B5 Run Away (Pt. II) - Folk
That saw it achieving a metal ratio of 72% & entering the chronological list at number 16.
There's no metal to be found on the 1979 "Gordi 2" sophomore album from Serbia's Gordi. It's a progressive/hard rock record.
Saxon's 1979 self-titled debut album is generally considered to be a NWOBHM record however the truth of it is that there's really very little metal on it with an AC/DC style hard rock sound being by far the dominant component. It shouldn't qualify for this exercise.
Checked out the 1979 self-titled debut album from France's trust this morning. It's certainly got a bit of metal about the guitar work but most songs sit better under the hard rock tag so it feels like more of an influence than a primary genre. The Van Halen influence is pretty major here.
The 1979 "Survivors" debut album from NWOBHM legends Samson isn't a metal record. It's a hard rock release with prog rock influences. There's not a single metal tune on this one.
Rainbow's 1979 fourth album "Down to Earth" has a little bit of metal here & there but is still very much a hard rock record & shouldn't qualify for consideration here.
Judas Priest's 1979 live album "Unleashed in the East" easily qualifies for the list with an impressive metal ratio of 84% which makes it the most metal release on our list to date.
Here's our updated chronological list:
I've had a real good listen to Riot's 1979 sophomore album today & have to maintain my position that it's not metal enough for inclusion, finishing with a metal ratio of just 33%. Here's how I tagged it:
A1 Waiting for the Taking (5:01) Hard rock
A2 49er (4:36) Hard rock
A3 Kick Down the Wall (4:32) Hard rock
A4 Born to Be Wild (2:47) Heavy metal/Hard rock
A5 Narita (4:38) Speed metal
B1 Here We Come Again (5:58) Hard rock
B2 Do It Up (3:44) Hard rock
B3 Hot for Love (5:00) Hard rock
B4 White Rock (2:33) Heavy metal/Hard rock
B5 Road Racin' (4:32) Heavy metal/Hard rock
I also assume that I'm gonna piss off a few people by claiming that there's not a single metal riff on Motorhead's 1979 "Bomber" third album. The only traces of metal come in the occasional use of double kick drumming but even those songs are far too bluesy to be claiming them as metal. I simply don't understand the almost unanimous metal claims with this one as it's clearly a rock 'n' roll record in my opinion.
My genre tagging for Riot's Narita is similar to yours, Daniel, except the riffing in "Waiting for the Taking" sounds metal enough for me to boost the album's metal ratio up to the minimum 40%.
I'm gonna make a pretty bold claim about the 1979 "The Death & Destiny E.P." from England's Mythra. I feel it's not only the first legitimate metal release to come out of the NWOBHM movement but I also think it's a) the first release ever to be completely compromised of metal songs & b) the very first speed metal record given my dual tagging of heavy metal/speed metal. That makes it the nineteenth metal release on our chronological journey through all of the genuine metal releases of the 1970's too.
After months of hard work, I've finally completed my comprehensive review of 1970's metal releases. The final two were:
This one-off album from Germany's The Hand of Doom certainly contains a few metal tracks but it only amounted to a metal ratio of 27% which isn't enough to push this hard rock release over into metal territory overall.
Motorhead's 1979 "On Parole" release drew together a collection of early recordings from 1975-76, none of which qualify as metal with much of this material struggling to meet the hard rock mark.
This leaves me falling just one release short of having twenty legitimate metal releases from the 1970's. The final list looks like this:
01. Black Sabbath - "Black Sabbath" (1970)
02. Black Sabbath - "Paranoid" (1970)
03. Black Sabbath - "Master of Reality" (1971)
04. Black Sabbath - "Vol. 4" (1972)
05. Black Sabbath - "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" (1973)
06. Black Sabbath - "Sabotage" (1975)
07. Judas Priest - "Sad Wings of Destiny" (1976)
08. Rainbow - "Rising" (1976)
09. Judas Priest - "Sin After Sin" (1977)
10. Judas Priest - "Stained Class" (1978)
11. Zarpa Rock - "Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis" (1978)
12. Alkana - "Welcome to My Paradise" (1978)
13. Judas Priest - "Killing Machine" (1978)
14. Heavy Load - "Full Speed at High Level" (1978)
15. Accept - "Accept" (1979)
16. Nokemono - "From the Black World" (1979)
17. Vatreni poljubac - "Recept za Rock 'n' Roll" (1979)
18. Judas Priest - "Unleashed in the East: Live in Japan" (1979)
19. Mythra - "The Death & Destiny E.P." (1979)
Rush's 1980 seventh album "Permanent Waves" again shows no signs of metal. It's about as prog rock as prog rock gets in my opinion.
Witchfynde's 1980 "Give 'Em Hell" debut album is worthy of taking up the vacant number 20 position. It's a very much the hard rock/heavy metal hybrid with progressive rock & heavy psych playing a role as well but there's comfortably enough metal to qualify here with a 62% metal ratio.
I checked out the 1980 "Glorious Road" fifth album from Japan's Bow Wow yesterday. There's definitely a bit of heavy metal there but not enough for a primary tag. It's more of a hard rock/power pop record in my opinion.
The 1980 third album "To je ono pravo" from Bosnia-Herzegovina hard rock outfit Vatreni Poljubac contains about 43% metal tracks so qualifies for inclusion in our list behind their sophomore record "Recept za Rock 'n' Roll".
The same cannot be said of the 1980 "Greatest Hits Vol. 1" debut album from London Oi! group Cockney Rejects which is pure punk other than one short heavy metal number.
I don't care what people say, Def Leppard have no right to a place in metal circles in my opinion. I really enjoy some of their albums of course but the fact is that they've never produced a record that contained enough metal to qualify in my opinion so it leaves me bemused that they're generally thought to be one of the main players in the NWOBHM. There are a few tracks that crossover into metal territory included on their debut album "On Through The Night" but not nearly enough for a primary tag.
As much as I hate to break the current 666 post count on this thread, I've been dying to tell you about our next release to qualify as a genuine metal record in the 1980 "Invasion" debut album from Kansas trio Manilla Road. It sees the band taking a very different route to the epic heavy metal they'd make their calling card through the middle of the decade with heavy psych playing just as strong a role as heavy metal does here but the album has still managed to achieve a healthy 48% metal ratio which is easily enough to see it justifying its position in our list.
Here's a link to the list as it stands now:
There's really only the one metal tune on Scorpions' 1980 seventh album "Animal Magnetism" which is the closing title track. The rest is about as hard rock as hard rock gets.