Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Could we use a Heavy Metal Section or maybe a Metal / Progressive Metal / Progressive Rock Section? Maybe if there is interest in this thread, we could use a metal section. If there were no interest, then there would be no point in having one.

There is no disputing the role of the Rickenbacker bass in heavy metal/progressive metal and progressive rock. Lemmy, Geddy Lee (in the metal days of Rush), Steve DiGiorgio, Sharlee D’Angelo, Micheal Anthony and Nikki Sixx are just a few of the metal bassists that used a Rick at least some point in their career. I remember plenty of local metal acts in NY which had bassists that used a Rick. Unfortunately, Rickenbacker guitars have the stigma of not having the right sound for metal. I think the 660 would be a great guitar for metal! When I had my music shop in Bronx back in the late ‘80’s, I was an authorized RIC dealer and I had a very reliable source tell me that Eddie Van Halen was at the RIC factory and expressed an interest in playing a Rickenbacker guitar. Imagine Eddie switching over to a Rick to play Eruption!
Even if you claim to not like Metal, aren’t you curious to hear what your influences have influenced and inspired music that others have created?
Who is even to say exactly what Metal is? Some people would consider metal to be any loud music with overdriven / distorted guitars. If that was the case, you could even throw some Yes songs or parts of their songs in that category. Obviously Yes is not a metal band, but there parts of a few songs where I would consider bordering on progressive metal, like on the Drama album. You might find that weird that I’ve added Yes in here but remember back in ’89 when Jethro Tull won best heavy metal album Grammy award!! I think Tull is a great band, but metal?!? Everyone into metal was expecting Metallica to walk away with that one!
There are so many different types of metal music. I thought grunge was metal played by guys with short hair (with the exception of a few), jeans and flannel shirts.
I personally wasn’t crazy over many of those glam metal bands as I found most of those bassists uninspiring, to put it nicely. I also found looking at men who were trying to look pretty, rather disturbing. But those bands usually had a couple of songs that I liked, mostly after they got tired of wearing t he make up and decided to focus more on their music.
I try to keep up with the times I like some of the newer metal. Some of the newer metal bands I just find sort of lame. I’m not really into metal bands that have a lead vocalist that spends at least 95% of his time sounding like he’s / she’s having their spleen torn out. I can’t deal with that and it’s too bad because the music in a few of those bands is pretty good.

There are many good progressive rock and progressive metal bands out there, unfortunately they don’t get much recognition and attention for their talent. I guess the record companies figure they can make more money pushing Britney Spears type artists.
Let’s start a discussion on which artist(s) or band(s) you think started heavy metal. Was it The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf, or some other band? Even Deep Purple once claimed to be the band that started heavy metal.

Hey Joey Thanks very much for starting this thread. As you know a metal section has been suggested by at least a couple of people on the forum. It remains to be seen I suppose how much interest and support there is on the forum. I suggested a while back that people with an interest in metal can discuss the genre and related topics here in It's Only Rock 'n Roll. It goes without saying that I am very pleased that you are comfortable enough to discuss metal bands here in this section.

you'll probably find this hard to believe but I used to play and listen to a lot of heavy Rock and Roll. Which (surprise surprise or no surprise to some) I believe, found it's own niche eventually as heavy metal.

Iron Butterfly, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin were probably the forerunners of the movement for me at least. In those days there was not a lot of airplay on the radio and therefore not a lot to choose from unless you discovered "gems" on your own.

Hey without even thinking about it some of the bands that I have seen in concert are: Uriah Heep, Nazareth, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Kiss, Twisted Sister, AC/DC and Black Sabbath just to name a few. So this is a subject that is not beyond my grasp or my sensibilities.

These days I still regularly listen to the aforementioned bands as well as bands like Van Halen, Whitesnake, Def Leppard, Boston, Queen, Kiss, AC/DC, Pantera, among a many others.

I have heard and I don't know how true this is; that Heavy Metal, as a descriptive term, was first coined by Frank Zappa to describe one of his favorite bands, Black Sabbath. Is there any truth to that? Lets hear from the heavy metal guys on the forum.

Bring it on!

I honestly think a metal section here would Tank pretty quickly or not just see much traffic. Don't get me wrong, I'm a metal guy to the bone but there's only a handful of us here.

phlemmy wrote:I honestly think a metal section here would Tank pretty quickly or not just see much traffic. Don't get me wrong, I'm a metal guy to the bone but there's only a handful of us here.

I'm quite surprised, Sean.
If you look through the forum sections, you'll notice that there are some that exist for much more time than the one i'm currently posting to (e. g. more than a year vs less than a month) but contain less messages than this one. Does that mean they're not needed and perhaps there was no point in creating them (or they should be removed right now, for that matter)?
"Garage" section doesn't see much traffic either and i'm pretty sure metal section would see more traffic. Or, i may be wrong, of course. We'll never really know unless (until?) there's a metal section.

Early metal to me would be Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, Mountain, Cream. Basically any loud aggressive distorted sound.

The Metallica, Motorhead, Judas Priest guys were considered second wave heavy metal by folks my age (56)

Great thread Joey!

Metal isn't my cup of tea, but I'm SURE there are more than enough metal fans here to form a new section.

I listen to a LITTLE Metallica and I like Queensryque a lot, heck, even a LITTLE (VERY LITTLE) Linkin Park too can be found in my CD collection. LOL, even a little Sabbath, Grand Funk, Van Halen once in a great while.

If an old fuddy duddy like me can listen to this stuff, that HAS to be many more closet Metal fans here!

BRING IT ON!

For the record and as an authority on heavy metal, Black Sabbath is the first. Period. Not Zeppelin. Not Blue Cheer. Sabbath.

Also for the record, no matter how heavy Motorhead may be, they are a rock band. Just ask Lemmy.

Continue on. I'm here to guide you.

To be serious for a moment (rare for me, I know)...A metal section would be great and Peter knows my enthusiasm for such a thing. I love discussing the subject and I love sharing my knowledge in the history of it and especially in discussion the true metal underground of the 80s. That's my forte.

If one does not come to fruition here, I do moderate a metal forum already on another site if anyone is ever interested. I'm glad to see that there is some interest here. I really thought just NattieP and I were the only ones.

Metal discussions certainly interest me - I was brought up on the stuff, it's the reason I originally wanted a bass and a guitar, and I played in a metal band for years. I've seen Maiden four times, once w/ backstage passes, and have been to a slew of other great metal shows.

May not be into it anymore, but I do have an interest and would definitely be adding to discussions.

nyrkickazz1 wrote: I've seen Maiden four times, once w/ backstage passes, and have been to a slew of other great metal shows.

Sweet! Only twice for me.

I did see Nicko on a drum clinic tour in 1988 an I got to get on stage with him and play his drums while he stood next to me. Highlight of my teen years for sure. I also got to meet Bruce and Adrian on one of Bruce's solo tours. They are so tiny.

Black Sabbath is the first according to the 2nd wave, as that is who they modeled their sound after. Us 1st wave guys aren't so sure.

Brian, good to see you have appreciation for headbanging!

Heavy Metal has become a generic term for loud rock music. The metal bands from the '70's seem quite mild in comparison to what would follow.
I agree that Black Sabbath was the first true metal band, but they are not really credited for starting it.
Lemmy might not consider Motorhead a metal band, but some would disagree with that.

Sean maybe there are just a handful of us metal fans here, but I have a hard time believing that a good number of the people that post here never listened to most of the bands Brian mentioned as well as plenty of other bands in the same genre.

The above article lost all credibility when it mentioned Judas Priest and Motorhead as pat of the NWOBHM movement. Both bands influenced the movement but were not part of it.

Then I guess we will have to disagree, because when I was first listening to rock in the late sixties/early seventies, we called that stuff heavy metal. It was the sound to us. As an example, Mark Farner's guitar was made out of metal!