You know them. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple. The “Unholy Trinity” of hard rock and heavy metal in the 70s. These 3 british bands more or less founded the entire heavy metal genre, and are all great.
There’s Led Zeppelin, comprised of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bass and keyboard player John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. Most well known for the 8 minute rock epic Stairway To Heaven, these guys started off as a blues/rock band in the late 60s before completely evolving into hard rock/heavy metal. They had a phenomenal run of 9 studio albums before disbanding in 1980 due to the death of Bonham.
Then there’s Black Sabbath, who are usually the ones given the brand of the “first metal band”. Debuting with their self-titled album in 1970, these guys created a new style of rock that had never been heard before due to the unique way their guitarist played after losing 2 fingers. Their most popular and well known lineup consisted of guitarist Tony Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne, bass player Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward. This lineup had a run of 8 albums before Ozzy left 1978. The band went through multiple lineup changes before the classic lineup minus Ward reunited and released a new studio album in 2013. This album ultimately ended up being their last, due to the state of Iommi’s health. As of now, the band is on their final tour, which will end in 2017.
And finally Deep Purple, the only one of the three groups that’s still together and releasing new music. They started as a psychedelic rock band in the late 60s, before their lead singer and bass player left. Their replacements formed the most popular lineup of the band, The Mark II Lineup. This lineup consisted of guitarist Richie Blackmore, singer Ian Gillan, keyboard player Jon Lord, bass player Roger Glover, and drummer Ian Paice. With this lineup change also came a new musical direction, and the band thus ended up as one of the first and most influential hard rock/metal bands of all time. The Mark II lineup released 4 albums in the 1970s before disbanding in 1976. However, they got back together in the late 80s and early 90s and released 3 more albums before Blackmore left permanently. The band is still active today, however.
These groups are all great musical geniuses in their own way, and really are the defining heavy metal/hard rock bands to me. But what are your thoughts on them?