Metal
Heavy Metal overview: to a lot of fans, Heavy Metal is a changeable term. Early Metal bands no longer qualify with our current understanding of Heavy Metal. But broadly speaking, Metal is louder, and "harder" (i.e., more distortion in the guitars, vocals, louder drums, more complications in rhythms, faster playing, repetitive riffs) and, lyrically, about hard topics like violence, suicide, rebellion, and anger. Basically rock with the soft edges removed.
One of the first bands that started this or at least influenced many of the real metal bands to follow was Led Zeppelin. There is constant debate regarding if Led Zeppelin is actually metal or not. This is something to consider in the questions. Elements such as high-pitched vocal bordering on shouting, with lots of edge, heavy low-range guitar, lots of 16th note subdivisions, are definitely characteristics of metal, and can be found in 3 of the following 4 songs:
Whole Lotta Love
Links to an external site.
The Lemon Song
Links to an external site. (blues based)
Kashmir
Links to an external site.
Their biggest hit is the least "hard" one of all, Stairway to Heaven
Links to an external site. (a masterpiece of a song), although it eventually gets there in the end. It has a continual crescendo (getting louder) and accelerando (getting faster), which is a bit unusual. Most songs are supposed to stay at about the same tempo.
Undeniable Metal
Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osborurne
Paranoid
Links to an external site.
Iron Man
Links to an external site.
After Ozzy split from Black Sabbath, he had great commercial success with hits like:
Crazy Train
Links to an external site.
Rock 'n' Roll Rebel
Links to an external site.
In particular, Rock 'n' Roll Rebel is probably the most "metal" of these. Lyrically, we can see a great example of the metal ethos. Whereas Bob Dylan wrote "please get out of the new [road] / If you can't lend a hand" in his song "The Times, They Are a Changin'", Ozzy wrote "Do what you will to try and make me conform / But I'll make you wish you had never been born". Yikes!
American Metal
I'm skipping some bands like Steppenwolf and MC5, and straight to Alice Cooper.
Each successive metal act tried to "out metal" the previous. Alice Cooper is the name of the band as well as the stage name of the singer, and they created a stage show that had bits of violence, the occult, sadomasochism, and (unfortunately) animal abuse. They would throw live chickens to the crowd who would rip them to shreds. This was a band who wasn't really getting anywhere until the notoriety of the stage antics put them on the map.
Some hits:
School's Out
Links to an external site.
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Links to an external site.
Go to Hell
Links to an external site. (from Alice Cooper, once he went solo from the band Alice Cooper. Not confusing at all)
Van Halen
Another example where looking back from now, this band doesn't seem metal at all, but at the time, they were totally metal. They hit big with singer David Lee Roth from 1983 - 1986, and had continued success with Sammy Hagar in 1986-1996. This is a hot topic divide for some Van Halen fans - some consider the David Lee Roth Era as the "only" era, while others like Sammy better. One of the main things with the band is that Eddie Van Halen became the real star, with the release of "Eruption", a guitar only instrumental that featured double-tapping technique. This was not a new technique. In fact, I think there was video of Chuck Berry doing a little bit in his shows. But it was certainly the first to highlight, magnify, and popularize this technique. If you're not sure what this means, here's an explanation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWAi39zz1G0
Links to an external site.
Eruption
Links to an external site. (the double tapping starts around 2:30 in)
Jump
Links to an external site. (their first big hit)
Hot for Teacher
Links to an external site. (this is more metal, with the double-kick drumming and guitar distortions and fast licks)
Running with the Devil
Links to an external site.
Of course, one of Van Halen's biggest hits (especially with the Sammy Hagar years) is probably this song: "Right Now": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEI7cTBVr2A
Links to an external site.
(Audio only link
Links to an external site.)
This video ended up winning the MTV "Video of the Year" award in 1992 (when it was released). Here's a behind the scenes article about the creation and the video: The conflicted history of Sammy Hagar’s Van Halen smash “Right Now”: ‘It shows you what I know’
Links to an external site.
Guns N' Roses
Early song Reckless Life
Links to an external site.
Welcome to the Jungle
Links to an external site.
Sweet Child of Mine
Links to an external site.
and a rare acoustic, softer side:
Move to the City
Links to an external site.
Metallica
Metallica is the archetypal heavy metal band of the mid 1980-s and 1990s. They achieved success with 1988s ...And Justic for All. They definitely took metal to harder extremes from previous bands, but also ended up softening up a tiny little as they got older with Load and ReLoad, then got harder again with St. Anger. To me, the album Load showed a bit more craftsmanship with the songs, and little more melodic consideration. The opening song from ReLoad was used at the beginning of NASCAR broadcasts for years, so it can't be that metal. But still, they kept those metal elements through their albums, even in a live show with the San Francisco Symphony! Let's hear some songs:
...And Justice for All
Links to an external site.
One
Links to an external site.
Nothing Else Matters
Links to an external site.
The Unforgiven
Links to an external site.
Enter Sandman
Links to an external site.
Hero of the Day
Links to an external site. (from Load. The intro is quite restrained)
Whisky in the Jar
Links to an external site. (old irish folk song)
That's all I have for this post. I could go on, but we'd have a million listening examples. Bands left out of this post: Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P., Quiet Riot, Queensryche, Ratt, Stained, Slipknot, Megadeath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Whitesnake, Def Leppard, and more. The follow up post will deal with the metal fragments of thrash metal, speed metal, death metal, and nü metal.