Proto-Metal

What are some examples of Proto-metal, band who werent metal, but had a definite influence on the sound? I know of Blue Cheer, Steppenwolf, and Iron Butterfly, and of course, you can throw Hendrix, Cream, and the Kinks in there as well (The Crazy World of Arthur Brown is sometimes called Proto-metal but that's more for the visual aspect, musically it's just psychadelic rock). Any other notable ones?

The Kinks & MC5 come to mind. Possibly also Mountain.

Grand Funk Railroad
Humble Pie
Blue Oyster Cult
Free
Link Wray
Atomic Rooster
Captain Beyond
Vanilla Fudge
Bloodrock
Cactus
"Screaming" Lord Sutch
King Crimson
Slade
Sir Lord Baltimore
Sweet
Ten Years After
Uriah Heep
Wishbone Ash
The Who
The Yardbirds

Not a band, but I consider Helter Skelter by the Beatles to be proto-metal.

Great topic!!!  I'm a huge nerd for all 60's and 70s hard rock, heavy psyche, proto-punk/metal/doom, etc!!  Shameless plug - if you're on spotify I've made an almost 500 song playlist of proto-metal and related 60s/70s heaviness.  All songs are hand picked, I don't just add entire albums, so all killer no filler!  My user name is kburke138 

Anyway, some great bands recommended here!  Some of my favorites that haven't been mentioned yet (EDIT: Just noticed that indeed Sir Lord Baltimore WAS mentioned by Constantine!)

Jerusalem - kamikaze moth
Not the Swedish Christian band, these guys were from the UK, managed and produced by Ian Gillan!  This one is from 1972:




Iron Claw - skullcrusher  

These guys NEVER got their due in the 70's, these recording weren't even officially released until 2009.  Blown out distorted heaviness, but still has some psyche influences.  Awesome stuff!  This was recorded in 1970:



Sir Lord Baltimore - hellhound
These guys are pretty well known and rightly so, their first album is hugely influential!

High Tide - futilist's lament
From 1969, these guys sound like the doors with distorted heavy guitars.  Awesome stuff!



Cromagnon - caledonia
From 1969, extremely bizarre, doesn't sound like it belongs in the 60s at all.  The heavy monotonous march to war type drums, hoarse raspy whispered vocals, the atmosphere of this song is more black metal than psyche. Too bad this was the only song on the album that sounds like this!

Pethead wrote:Not a band, but I consider Helter Skelter by the Beatles to be proto-metal.

Absolutely!!  I'm a huge Beatles fan and I like all of their various sounds/eras to some degree, but that song is on another level.

Just goes to show how many underground garage bands were heavy besides the known stuff like Blue Cheer and Sabbath etc... 

That High Tide band and Iron Claw are especially good!

TZ75 wrote:Just goes to show how many underground garage bands were heavy besides the known stuff like Blue Cheer and Sabbath etc... 

That High Tide band and Iron Claw are especially good!

Yeah, there is SOOOO much stuff out there, so many hidden gems!

Some good bands listed already, could add:

Spooky Tooth
Bloodrock
Lucifer's Friend

the Ceiling wrote:Some good bands listed already, could add:

Spooky Tooth
Bloodrock
Lucifer's Friend

Oh yeah, Lucifer's Friend is great, always thought this song was incredible:

Queen.

Especially their second album, Queen II: a very overlooked and underrated album.  It's an epic piece of proto prog-metal- fantasy and medieval awesomeness.

Dustofyears wrote:Queen.

Especially their second album, Queen II: a very overlooked and underrated album.  It's an epic piece of proto prog-metal- fantasy and medieval awesomeness.

Yes!  Ogre Battle is on that album!!  And while it's not on Queen II, Stone Cold Crazy is probably proto-speed metal!

That “Spirit in the Sky” song by Norman Greenbaum could be seen as another precursor to stoner rock. It has that slow buzzy “pulse”.

The Move, the band that basically became ELO, had some pretty heavy stuff for their time. Especially on their albums Shazam and Looking On - both released in 1970.

Warpig- S/T album from 1970

Yeah, warpig is great! From Canada! Still heavy but still has some of the 60s groove/psych left in their sound.  Love the keyboards!  

Another one of my favorites that hasn't been mentioned:

Leaf Hound - freelance fiend
awesome guitar tone, nice repetitive groove, plus COWBELL!!!

Highway Star wrote:Warpig- S/T album from 1970

What a coincidence! 

What came first? The song from Sabbath or this band? Both are in 1970. 

The main difference I notice is that Warpig was a lot more prog than Sabbath.