metal begins with blue cheer

this album gives it a giant pat on the ass before it lines up at the scrimmage

annnnnnnnnnnnnd NO.

dalen,

as much as i dig Blur Cheer, they can't own that title.

they were good enough for lester bangs

I have both Vanilla Fudge and Blue Cheer in my sprawling music collection and while they are both pretty cool, they are not metal


sorry toots, we're going to have to agree to disagree about this

Toots has a defensible position- Blue Cheer has been called "the first heavy metal band" enough that he didnt just pull it out of his ass.

and dont turn this into a "XX isn't heavy metal..." thread when you mean "XX isnt what I consider to be heavy metal" plsokty

I've always heard about this Blue Cheer band - "named after a potent strain of LSD" - but never actually heard the album. Who wants to open my doors of perception?

Not my link - but it seems to work- Blue Cheer debut album Vincebus Eruptum

One the guys from Blue Cheer just passed away last fall ...

Indecently loud live- first wall of Marshalls I ever saw. Very raw and basic with more of a blues undercurent than most "metal" as I understand the definition. I think I have a greatest hits at home I can up, but none of the complete albums. I'll up it later, if you want.

i'll give you that Sabbath was possibly the first in their genre to regularly utilize the G-C# tritone and add the sinister diabolus in musica to caucasian power blues, but the case still stands for blue cheer:

-was managed by an ex-Hell's Angel named Gut
-first guitarist left the band due to deafness
-1968 debut album sinisterly named Vincebus Eruptum

These guys may well have been the first heavy metal band.
-Lester Bangs, "A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise"

Blue Cheer are often cited as the first genuine heavy metal band, but that in itself doesn't quite sum up the true impact of this music, which even at a low volume sounds crushingly forceful. Though Blue Cheer's songs were primarily rooted in the blues, what set them apart from blues-rock progenitors such as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds was the massive physical force of their musical attack.
-Allmusic.com\

Stephens ... inadvertently birthed [heavy metal], and the most primal version of the inexorable and inept guitar freak-out. Vincebus essentially acts as the juncture of the lethally lethargic, basement-murder morass of Sabbath and the vomit-spewing anxiety of early punk rock.
-Pitchfork.com

-"grinding black metal" act called Vincebus Erumptum (Load Records)

-and:

as the car rolled north towards michigan you complained
that all i like to listen to is gary neuman and the tubeway army
well maybe that's true
but what about you
and the blue cheer comprehensive retrospective box set
that's pretty annoying too.

always mountain goats with you

never cared for 'em.

sorry toots, but allmusic, lester bangs, and pitchfork would not be my resources for the "First Heavy Metal Album". ask just about any metalhead that follows heavy music closely, and 99% would rate Sabbath as the first, and Black Sabbath as the first, true, proper heavy metal album through and through. Vincebus Eruptum is more of a blues album than it is heavy metal, and that cannot be argued.

would you consider Blue Cheer to be a heavy metal band then and now? seriously?

i will be sure to forego the positions of career archivists in the future and instead rely on the opinions of in the future

Bands like Journey and Supertramp have even been influenced by Sabbath. There are plenty of Styx songs that blatantly rip off Sabbath.

were it not for richard palmer's errant balalaika, i'd put supertramp squarely in the "proto-metal" phylum next to thin lizzy














say amen, somebody

I think if you polled 100 current metal bands today, who the first metal band was....I'd venture to guess at least 95% of them would say Sabbath.

likewise, if you polled the same 100 bands on why it gets dark at night, 95% of them would say satan killed the sun

i'm pretty sure i read that the metal tracks that Charlie Daniels Band did were influenced by him.

yeah, and....

Ok so ignore people who have made a career in music analysis and history and instead poll the kid next door who mows lawns for dope money.. got it.

It is more 'blues' than heavy metal... well depends on what blues you compare it to and what metal (or heavy rock) you compare it to. Like all definitions, therein lies the rub. And even so, that doesn't matter.

Is Chuck Berry rock-n-roll? Of course - but if you ask the average fan - they would argue the distinctions more than the fundamental similarities.

"First" and your back-peddling "first, true proper heavy metal album through and through" ignores how genre's evolve.

EDIT: and 'first' doesnt imply paradigmatic (which sure, I would say rests squarely with Black Sabbath)