The transition that took place that you fail to acknowledge is from Psychedelic heavily influenced blues hard rock of the 60's ala Blue Cheer, Cream etc. to what Sabbath did to take it to the next step that completed it.
"Psychedelic heavily influenced blues hard rock" somehow I think this was written wrong because it doesnt make sense as its put together but regardless if Im interpreting it right this is the first I heard Cream related to psychedelic and I cant currently recall any psychodelic Cream song. However that late 60's era of hardrock such as Hendrix, Cream, Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf and others was pushed to the side in 69 with the two Led Zeppelin releases which represented the new scene that was happening in Britian. Quickly to be followed in 70 with releases by Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Atomic Rooster, the third Zep album, Tulls Benefit was heavier than previous, Deep Purples In Rock was heavier than previous, it was the scene and all have stakes in metal.
Interesting is that Heeps album was titled Very 'eavy very 'umble which about sums it up, it was very heavy and very simplistic, overly repetitious but contains early examples of the heavily driven chunky guitar pedals that would become a staple in heavy metal such as Iron Maiden for example. Also found on Zeps songs Whole Lotta Love and Immigrant song.
Besides a few bottle neck tunes I can think of on the second and third Heep albums they never even came close to the blues. They did delve into folky and acoustic bits such as Lady in Black and Come Away Melinda... still very dark sounding. Some progressive leanings as simplistic as they were. Some of their themes were more in line with later power metal. Early album artwork was quite metal. They were pretty much cooked by the end of thier 3rd (edit... 4th album) album with their repetitiveness and move toward commercialism.
Atomic Roosters - Death Walks behind you contained some of the most haunting dark sounds I recall at the time. They did have moments of the old and
legit psychodelic hard rock poping out. No blues such as heard on Zep I and some Zep II songs. This was it for Rooster, though they still stayed kind of dark the music lost its heavy feel and became more typical.
Deep Purple - never heard their contributions denied. I believe primarity besides some earlier songs, later releases and Gillans time in Sabbath as well as Blackmore/Dio its more natural for the metal community to not deny them metal status where they can look at Zep and their acoustic work and later more progressive and move away from always being heavy and say "No" but the impact of what heaviness was in Zeps first four albums is as important as any if not more influencial early on. Deep Purple had lots of blues based stuff, lots of chuggy stuff, always balls to the wall.
Tull - always much more than any specific genre, one of their own perhaps but they could still brood with the best when they headed that way. Maiden covering Cross Eyed Mary speaks for itself.
Sabbath - also formed as a heavy blues band released two blues covers on their first album. Somewhere in there in the first few releases was one particular nearly lounge jazz sounding song I liked alot. I just no longer have any of their music to go back through and sort out. They indulged in horror topics which does not cover the entire metal genre, so did Alice Cooper & band, who were also players in early 70's metal rootes. Sabbath was very fat sounding due to a necessary de-tuning, dark sounding, slow haunting music and stayed that path where others fell apart, dried out, buckled from pressure to commercialize or did so on their own. Others leaned toward creating new sounds in a progressive manor such as Zep & Tull.
There are other more obscure bands I never heard, this Blue Cheer being one of them, Colloseum being another, the guitar player from Free has been said to be in some aggressive bands prior to Free and I never owned a Free album either, those are only the ones I can think of Ive heard mentioned.
So no Sabbath was not alone in the least late 60's early 70's and did not create heavy metal. First of the origional bands to continue the route perhaps but as my origional statement stood they are not soley responsible for the sounds of metal. Myself I would put Hendrixs Are You Experienced as the origional foundation block and Zep II as the next to raise the bar with all hell breaking loose the following year. I cant speak for Creams albums, I only ever had one called Heavy Cream and while I listened to it plenty and it was agressive it was still the older sound to my ears at that time... things changed dramatically come 69-70-71 which must be what the first wave of heavy metal was because for some damn reason they called the later period - second wave of British heavy metal... not the second wave of British Black Sabbath.
Thats the way it went down, dont shoot the messenger he wears a well hardened heavy metal jacket and bullets bounce right off.
