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...