Who Invented Heavy Metal?

[expat]

This is an interesting discussion - but. Does it hack anyone else off how so many spods and spotters insist on precise definitions of genres of popular music? I'm thinking more of dance music than rock, and although some of the definitions are hilarious, there are some real saddos arguing about whether some track/band is one genre or another.

Uh-huh: classification is supposed to be a help, not a problem in itself.

[threaded]

Long running discussion point this.
IMO it's Black Sabbath. Remember we're talking METAL not ROCK.

Iron Butterfly

[darmstadt]

In fact I invented what would be commonly termed 'Heavy Metal' back in the late 70's/early 80's. I had been playing in a punk band and was getting a bit bored of what we were doing. By playing the tunes a lot faster and a lot louder it sounded quite good and we did quite a number of gigs around the country. One gig saw a fledgling band called Discharge come to see us and liked the way we played and basically copied us. They in turn were seen by members of Metallica (or whatever they were called then) who took the sound back to the USA and there you have it. I could have been a contender me

[Fred Bloggs]

I was watching Mountain (Nantucket Sleighride) on the Woodstock DVD the other day and they came over quite metal to me - particularly the vocals. I'm guessing they were around some time before Sabbath, Led Zep etc.

A great band! Nantucket Sleighride is a true classic amongst classics!

The Wikipedia page says- "They were influential during the development of hard rock and are considered a forerunner to heavy metal music"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_(band)