"The Roots of Metal" Project

That track gets a hard rock/heavy psych from me.

In the end I only gave half of a track a metal rating, so my opinion is obvious.

OK, it's time to kick-off a new record in the 1971 debut album from Welsh trio Budgie which is arguably the heaviest of their 1970's releases. What do you think about opening track "Guts"? Metal or not?

It's certainly pretty heavy for the time but I'd suggest that it's more of a stoner rock tune than a metal one personally. It combines the influences of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin & Jimi Hendrix to great effect.

I revisited Deep Purple's "Fireball" record from 1971 this morning & it's definitely not a metal release in my opinion although the opening title track certainly is. I'm not intending on investigating the "Fireball" album as part of this exercise unless anyone here feels really strongly about it. Speak up or forever hold your peace.

How about "Everything In My Heart"? Metal or not?

I've got it as psychedelic folk.

Also, I checked out Buffalo's 1972 "Dead Forever..." album yesterday to examine its metal credentials. There's certainly a strong Black Sabbath influence but it doesn't amount to enough metal to justify investigation here. It's a hard rock/heavy psych record for mine. Anyone disagree?

I would say...

Guts, kind of hard, not necessarily metal, but not necessarily anything else. Some unholy heavy metal/heavy psych hybrid.

Everything in My Heart, half folk half metal.

Will get back to you on the Buffalo album.

How about "The Author"? Metal or not?

I've got it down as blues/hard rock.

Hang on, you sent the wrong version of Everything in My Heart, on the album that's less than a minute long, the track you linked includes The Author in it.

Changing votes based on this knowledge:

Everything in My Heart, folk.

The Author, a third folk, the rest metal.

That’s making more sense. I thought you might be on drugs previously. :)

Once again, I have this one down as hard/blues rock.

I lean between heavy metal and hard rock. Not really sure which one I would give the predominate point.

How about "Rape Of The Locks"? Metal or not?

It's hard/blues rock for mine.

I would go for hard/blues rock myself too.

How about "All Night Petrol"? Metal or not?

I've got this one down as stoner rock.

I'd say some sort of rock as well.

How about "You & I"? Metal or not?

I've got folk pop for this one.

Also, I gave Flower Travellin' Band's 1972 "Made In Japan" album a couple of listens over the last couple of days & found that it's not a metal record. As with their first two records, it's got one obvious metal track but I'd describe it as sitting somewhere between heavy psych & psychedelic rock overall. I'm suggesting that we don't consider it unless anyone else has any strong feelings to the contrary. It's a fantastic fucking record though nonetheless. I absolutely love Flower Travellin' Band.

That seems pretty solidly in the folk category, not metal at all.

And finally, "Homicidal Suicidal". Metal or not?

I've got this as stoner rock. Ultimately that leaves me not having found a single track to be legitimate metal. "Budgie" was certainly very heavy for its time but a lot of that comes down to the bass-heavy production & its far too bluesy to transcend hard rock in my opinion.

I checked out Night Sun's 1972 "Mournin'" album over the last two days &, while there are definitely some moments where the lines are blurred, I think there's only really the one track that I can confidently say is a genuine metal track so I'm not intending on including it here. It feels much better suited to a progressive/hard rock tag in my opinion. Let me know if you disagree.

Considering that it seems to be just you and me at this point there's not really much point to it if you don't think so.

I'd say this track is at least partially metal as well. This one was interesting, I don't think I ever heard Budgie before and it's surprising just how heavy they are, before this I heard no one from that time who got as heavy as Sabbath. I think I lead towards not metal myself, though it gets close in places.

I think Rex & Xephyr will probably be back so we'll continue. After all, I'm going to conduct the exercise regardless of whether others contribute or not so why not offer the opportunity to collaborate on it.

Today we'll be starting a new release in Black Sabbath's 1971 masterpiece "Master of Reality". I'm really interested to see what subgenre I end up with here after my outcomes for Sabbath's first two records ended up sitting outside of the general consensus. Let's start with the opening track "Sweet Leaf" which I find to be a really easy one as it's the very definition of stoner metal in my opinion.

Ironically I came back for this just to check because I lost interest in metal right now, largely because I'm focusing on three different games on Movieforums about noir movies.  But I have to say, I always found Sweet Leaf to be metal, and is probably my favorite Sabbath song.  Thanks, Beastie Boys.  Very proud to have this album on vinyl.

How about "After Forever"? Metal or not? I'd suggest that it's far more borderline than some would have you believe. It certainly doesn't "feel" like metal a lot of the time with a hard rock guitar tone,  swing drumming & the use of tambourine but the main riff is certainly a metal riff. I think I'm gonna go against the grain by saying hard rock for this one.

Sweet Leaf, stoner metal, pretty obvious.

After Forever, while jolly, it seems pretty solidly heavy metal to me.

One absolutely has to admire the acid rock undertones here.  Perfect for a Black Sabbath song.  This is also a step further into the hard rock of the time with effects and attitude taking up much of the metal influence.  I think it's say, 60% hard rock, 40% metal, not quite there for me.