What 70s/80s classic rock bands would you consider metal?

[ChemicalWarfare84]

OK, so today, I got Van Halen's debut album in the mail, and it got me thinking: there are various rock bands from the 70s and 80s that people have differing opinions about whether or not they're metal: AC/DC, Van Halen, and so on. Hell, I asked for some classic metal recommendations on a classic rock forum, and some guy recommended Rush for some reason. As part of my effort to learn more about the rock and metal communities, I'm curious: which 70s and 80s rock bands would you consider metal?

 

[CiG]

Definitely not AC/DC.

 

[mdmatt4ever]

deep purple

 

[Bloopy]

Dio, Rainbow, Budgie, Ozzy Osbourne's solo stuff. Depends which bands you're talking about when you say 'classic rock', as even Black Sabbath gets called classic rock quite a lot.

You could also check which classic rock bands have been accepted into Encyclopaedia Metallum. Their criteria is that a band has an album that's at least half metal. So you'll find the likes of Rush, Scorpions, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Skid Row, Thin Lizzy, Cockney Rejects, Divlje Jagode, and Bow Wow (the Japanese band). I wouldn't call any of those 'metal bands'.

Budgie is an interesting one since a couple of their albums are mostly softer stuff with a couple of longer metal songs thrown in. Still feels like listening to a metal album to me based on my view of the band overall.

 

[CiG]

I'd call Twisted Sister a metal band.

 

[Bloopy]

Good call. Clearly I should listen to them more beyond just the hits and a couple of random songs.

 

[mdmatt4ever]

I'd call Twisted Sister a metal band.

Good call. Clearly I should listen to them more beyond just the hits and a couple of random songs.

i'd say the first 2 twisted sister albums and then half of stay hungry is metal. the rest is more pop metal

 

[CiG]

the rest is pop

FTFY.

 

[loves guitars]

I'd consider Dio, Ozzy, Accept, Maiden, Priest, Megadeth' Metallica and some others the names escape me right now.. as 70's and 80's metal.....

 

[SoundMaster]

Dio-era Rainbow
Deep Purple from "In Rock" through "Burn"
UFO
Roth-era Scorpions
Budgie
early Uriah Heep (basically inception through about 1974)
Rush

 

[loves guitars]

omg, I can't believe I forgot the Scorpions , UFO, Micheal Schenker, MSG {same} and Roth. I've learned a lot of their songs and it
's easy to see why they are so good.

 

[CiG]

I'd consider Dio, Ozzy, Accept, Maiden, Priest, Megadeth' Metallica and some others the names escape me right now.. as 70's and 80's metal.....

Controversial opinion.

 

[Bloopy]

Bringing up Megadeth and Metallica in a classic rock thread seems silly now. But give it another couple of decades and I suppose a lot of Black Album fans will be shipped off to retirement homes.

 

[loves guitars]

it's not written in stone ya know...

 

[Ron Schaub Studios]

OK, so today, I got Van Halen's debut album in the mail, and it got me thinking: there are various rock bands from the 70s and 80s that people have differing opinions about whether or not they're metal: AC/DC, Van Halen, and so on. Hell, I asked for some classic metal recommendations on a classic rock forum, and some guy recommended Rush for some reason. As part of my effort to learn more about the rock and metal communities, I'm curious: which 70s and 80s rock bands would you consider metal?

70s metal in my opinion would be Deep Purple, Led Zepplin, Kiss, Aerosmith, and Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, though some of those are sometimes considered classic rock or hard rock by others. These were the forerunners to 80s metal though, including hair metal and glam and harder rock / heavy metal. 80s metal would be Dokken, Motley Crue, Ratt, Ozzy, Guns n Roses, Dio, Scorpions. Bands like ACDC and Van Halen would be in that category as well. Classic Rock to me growing up was Fleetwood Mac, Rolling Stones, Styx, Journey, Asia, and Foreigner... which are not "hard" rock but more mainstream radio friendly rock. Bands like Metallica and Megadeath and Anthrax, etc... were considered Thrash back when I was in highschool in the 80s while the hard rock and glam bands like Whitesnake, Great White, Dokken were all considered metal.

Music Instructor and Personal Trainer in Pittsburgh

Ron Schaub Studios 724-472-5653 Guitar and Vocal Lessons and Personal Fitness and Strength Training in Pittsburgh

ronschaubstudios.com

 

[Ron Schaub Studios]

Today we have black metal, death metal, and all sorts of offshoots of the 80s speed metal and thrash I mentioned, none of which is melodic or anything remotely close to 70s and 80s rock or what we all called Heavy Metal back then. It's just screaming and growling and guttural sounds and noise. Playing a riff or lead solo 100 times faster with no melody or substance to the song and screaming or growling to it and calling that "vocals" or "music" is ridiculous. I was never a fan of the thrash back then either. Sebastien Bach of Skid Row and Don Dokken and Ronnie James Dio and Klaus Meine all had screaming lyrics and vibrato and long held notes and vocal range as well as melodic yet screeching pounding guitars in their music... and it sounded great. Metal doesn't mean being as hard or sinister and Evil as you can be. It's gotten away from what it was meant to be, unfortunately.

ronschaubstudios.com