BANDS THAT ARE "HEAVY" BUT NOT "METAL"... OR ARE THEY? Pt. 3: PROTO METAL & MORE

Hey Nick! Loved the show! Thin Lizzy is a fantastic band. I wouldn’t consider them metal but the closest they come is the album Thunder & Lightning. Blue Oyster Cult was never metal but more hard rock. Same goes with Van Halen. Finally Samhain is one of my favorite bands ever Samhain III: November Coming Fire is my favorite album Danzig ever sang on! Death rock is an actual genre man. Samhain, 45 Grave & Christian Death are all death rock. It’s basically the combo of punk rock and goth rock. Also Final Descent is an interesting album. It was released in 1990 and it basically was partly songs that were going to be on the final Samhain album and a couple ended up on the 1st Danzig album. But the final Samhain album never happened and some of the songs are remixed tunes from the the Unholy Passion EP and one song Death In It’s Arms was recorded during the Danzig 2 sessions. Either way kick ass episode man! Hope I didn’t bore with all the info. Just wanted to give you some background on stuff.

Man I highly recommend getting to Danzig for the band's first 4 albums. Give the song How the Gods Kill a shot to experience one of the best atmospheric builds into an explosive lead you'll ever have the pleasure of hearing.

Love the Blue Oyster Cult and Thin Lizzy!

I grew up on early Voivod, around the 80s I was also into hardcore and crossover, loved D.R.I, Cryptic Slaughter and the Accused, then I heard Napalm Death's Scum, then followed Doom, E.N.T, Unseen Terror so I was all hyped up on intense brutal stuff, so when Dimension Hatross dropped I bought it and hated it, thought it sounded like U2 or something. Strangely enough Dimension Hatross and Nothingface are my all time favourite albums, took me a while to "get them" but when I did... 🙂 I'd also like to add noise rock/post-hardcore bands Dazzling Killmen, Craw and Party Diktator in there as intense complex bludgenings that wouldn't be considered metal, especially Craw's Bodies For Strontium 90, insanely heavy and complex. You have great taste in music by the way. 😊

Well, you finally made me check out The Mars Volta. It's been a lot to take in, but I'm liking this. Am I the only one that thinks the singer sounds like Björk when he's doing the high notes?

Hell yeah! Been waiting for part 3! This series is great, awesome bands getting some recognition!

Didnt realise you were an At The Drive In fan too! Relationship of Command was big for me in getting into heavy music. Fantastic analysis and video as always. Fully agree with those 70s proto metal groups like Thin Lizzy/BOC/Van Halen definitely having elements and arguably metal songs on occasion but not full blown metal bands.

I loved the cure,s one attempt at metal - never enough !!!!!!

Another fun video! I haven't really listened to Thin Lizzy (other than "The Boys Are Back in Town," obviously), so I've always been a little confused about their inclusion in the metal/proto-metal discussion. However, I do know their guitar harmonies are iconic, and I do hear their influence from time to time from bands reaching back to that 70s style of rock and metal. Maybe I just need to listen to the right songs (like the ones you mentioned) to understand it. I've listened to a bit more of BOC, but I think they're inclusion is more about their occult lyrics and tone than any metal musicality. Certainly influential, but not metal (IMO). I agree that Van Halen is the pioneer of the 80s glam/hair metal scene, most of which I do include as metal. (I use the term "pop metal" myself for that whole sound.) Van Halen is massively influential and I would have them in as metal, if only because they started that whole sound. Speaking of new bands sounding like old school metal: Have you checked out Gygax? They've got a very 70s metal sound and their lyrics are full of old-school D&D references. 😄

Nice review of BOC, but most 50+ year fans of them would I think disagree with your assessment of their "Fire Of Unknown Origin" as their heaviest release. I, personally think it is one of their least heavy. At least nowhere near as heavy as their first 3. Tyranny & Mvtation opens with the explosive "The Red & The Black", and hardly lets up from there. Your quoting of "7 Screaming Diz-Busters" was 🎯. With lyrics like, "...for those who lurked behind the rose..." and "...with hardened smiles & evil signs, & ice behind their eyes...", "...when Duster's dust becomes the sale, & Lucifer the light." Pretty heavy lyrics if you ask me.

I love that your a big fan of The Mars Volta, Frances The Mute is probably my favorite album ever.

I certainly dig heavy bands, metal or otherwise.

As someone who loves Thin Lizzy, I think had Phil Lynott not passed away when he did, I suspect Thin Lizzy would have gone full on metal, spearheaded by John Sykes (who I adore as a guitar player). But then again, had that been the case, we probably wouldn't have had the Whitesnake 1987 album and Blue Murder. Not sure if you have heard the 1973 live version of The Knife by Genesis, I would consider that borderline proto-metal, also Steve Hackett's tapping techniques were highly influential on metal bands guitar players too.

Fun topic Nick, cheers!

Possibly a controversial take, but I'd label 80's KISS as a straight up metal band, with albums like Creatures of the Night, Lick It Up, Animalize and Asylum. Uriah Heep had some arguably metal albums like Head First, Abominog. In their formative 70's, they along with their peers, set the stage for the more abstract and fantasy elements that would become a prominent element of metal later on, particularly power metal. If you haven't heard of them, I highly recommend the band Devil Doll from Slovenia/Italy (they are on the MA). Lots of highly theatrical and horror themed albums, with metal elements. Very mysterious band with their enigmatic principal songwriter Mr Doctor. Love the series. Keep up the good work.

In the (Snap)case of the 'Progression Through Unlearning' album specifically, I would say Snapcase actually could be labelled 'metallic hardcore'. Not only one of the best Victory Records albums, but one of the best hardcore albums ever in general as far as I'm concerned; right up there with Turmoil 'The Process of..' and Strife 'In This Defiance'.. 👌

Snapcase had such a unique sound. The post hardcore elements, the harmonics, the bounce. With all the 90s worship going on I'm surprised nobody has tried to bite their style.

Random question but what’s the song y’all use in your intros? I’d love to listen to the whole thing.

The Dio era of Sabbath,definitely metal.

Your first video on these, got me to finally check out Fudge Tunnel