Heavy Metal Inspirations

Find out who inspired your favorite Metal artists

Heavy Metal Inspirations

11

-Iron Maiden

-Pioneers of New Wave of British Heavy Metal

-This movement included Motorhead and Def Leppard

10
-Rush
-Inspired by Cream and Led Zeppelin
-Considered to be one of the top progressive rock bands

Geddy Lee looks very good in this photo

9

-Motley Crue

-Similar in some ways, at least, musically, to Def Leppard

8
-Ozzy Osbourne
-Got kicked out of Black Sabbath in 1979
-After becoming a solo artist, he reinvented himself to become more radio friendly, with tracks like 'Crazy Train', 'Mr. Crowley', with the help of Randy Rhoads

7
-Van Halen
-Eddie Van Halen and his guitar really made things happen on their 1978 self-titled album
-They were one of the last bands to have a truly huge, revolutionary impact on metal music

6
-AC/DC
-Anymore, people consider them to be more of a rock band than metal act
-Some of their top hits include 'Hells Bells' and 'Back in Black'
-Some people think that Guns N' Roses belongs here, but the Aussie rockers are staying

5
-Metallica
-They came into the world in the mid 1980s, with their underground thrash metal
-Some of their top hits include 'Master of Puppets' 'Ride the Lightning'
-Their 1991 self-titled 'Black Album' made them international stars and are considered to be the kings of metal

4
-Deep Purple
-They had a pretty large influence on heavy metal
-They are a relatively well known British hard rock band with tracks like 'Space Truckin', 'Woman from Tokyo', 'Hush'
-They were once dubbed the World's Loudest Pop Group by the Guiness Book of World Records
-They were considered to be, even before Iron Maiden, the pioneers of heavy metal
-Ritchie Blackmore's riffs on 'Smoke on the Water' are timeless and any person who aspires to be a metal musician should start with this song

3
-Led Zeppelin
-They really aren't considered heavy metal, but they do have a heavy blues-y sound to their rock music.
-Jimi Hendrix, Cream and even The Beatles paved the way for these guys

2
-Judas Priest
-They're called 'Metal Gods' for a reason. BTW, this song rocks!
-They have many things about them that make them unique, other than coming from the same area of England as Sabbath, Birmingham, this band has many things unique about them
-This includes frontman Rob Halford's vocals soaring over guitarists Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing, and drummer Scott Travis
-It's also said that their 1980s album British Steel is a safe bet to listen to if you were to start listening to them. And somehow, they manage to stay ahead of the trends and still be popular

1

-Black Sabbath

-I'm really not surprised to see and hear they are one of the top metal bands. But hey, it's something I'll agree with. They are one of the better metal bands, even if their music is sort of Occult themed. 'Bark at the Moon' I'm beginning to really like

-These guys managed to even influence new sub-genres of metal, like doom metal and thrash

-Their 1970 album Paranoid remains one of the most influential albums to this day