Other than Priest, Sabbath and Motorhead, what other bands were releasing metal albums in the 70s? Other than those three bands, the only one I can think of is Quartz (1977, self-titled). I am aware of other stuff, e.g. Bedemon and Pentagram, but that wasn't realeased until later. I'm looking for full-length metal albums only released during the 70's, i.e. not 1980.

Also, I think it is safe to say that thin Lizzy=hard rock, not metal. I have no idea why that is on the archives (unless its because of something they did in the 80's); same could probably be said of the Scorpions.

I'm sure their are tons of undisputably metal albums, so let's name them.

Just search MA.

Accept, Rainbow, and Saxon all had pre- 1980 releases.

Flower Travellin' Band's Satori is on my list of albums to hear before you die. Metal or not.

Sounds fucking grim, lol.

Not RIGHT BEFORE YOU DIE.

Yeah, I actually just discovered the little "advanced" link next to the search button. I have no idea why I've never noticed that before. The OP must be retarted.

There is still the problem of weeding out the hard rock releases though.

Also, thanks for the Saxon and Accept references. I was thinking their first releases were later.

Oh this pisses me off.

There's so little full lengths from the early to mid 70's that trial and error won't take too long.

Supposedly once they released "Machine Head" Deep Purple developed a "metal" sound. I've never bothered with Deep Purple from this era, though.

Although I haven't heard all of them, I believe Thunder and Lightning is the most convincingly metal release, and a primary reason they are here.

Well, they did have a huge influence on metal too.

Yeah, so did ac/dc, van halen, led zep, cream, and on and on and on; but I don't see any of them here. So that is why I am perplexed at thin lizzy being here.

They were metal on In Rock for sure. Mainly attributed to Gillan's vocals and the rough production.

It could be said that Uriah Heep qualifies as metal. Many tunes have Iron Maiden feel, though not as heavy. Possibly an early pre genre folk metal band.

Thunder and Lightning is metal. Plain and simple.

Heep has plenty of metal tunes. I never understood their exclusion here, especially when Deep Purple is included.

Don't forget Riot everyone. They had a few albums out in the late 70s if I'm not mistaken.

Check out Krokus too.

Not sure. I was about to link to the song "Angel of Death", but apparently that's from '81. Actually, I just researched further, and T&L is from '83. This annoys me.
On that note, I'd go with others and suggest Uriah Heep. Though they aren't on the archives, here's a little sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wgOz8iweLc
More debatably, I'll also suggest Blue Öyster Cult's live On Your Feet Or On Your Knees.

Alright I have decided that my original post was badly organized and that it lends itself to much to being answered with a big long boring list. So let me ask a different, but related question.

Why is it that the progress of metal between 1970 and 1979 was so slow compared to the progress made from 1979-1981? What are the factors that went into this? I mean, Priest was successful, weren't they? So why weren't there really very Preist clones until about 1980, and then all of the sudden there were like 100's of them?

Edit: I am listening to Riot, Rock City (1977) right now. Holy balls this is heavy. Thanks for the reference.

I don't think from Black Sabbath, the song to Exciter in 78 is slow progress at all. There was no inkling of that style of metal in Sabbath's early albums. What's closer to the truth is that once the quintessential metal sound crystallized in the 80s, it hasn't changed a whole lot whereas in the 70s they were still searching for THE metal sound. As for bands not imitating JP, JP only got there with the three albums from Sad Wings...to Stained Class, so it takes time for the imitators to get started.

By 'progress', do you mean diversification? By '79, you already had the foundations of Heavy, Doom, Speed, Progressive, and Hair laid out.

Metal was still tied up with hard rock and even progressive music (i.e. see Uriah Heep) as part of the modern rock fabric in the 70’s. Bands didn't call themselves metal (Purple ran from the term) and most bands borrowed from multiple genres. Rock music peaked and was falling out of style by the mid 70's, so metal was there too by default. Rock as a total was seen by the next generation as getting to “boring and stuffy". Led Zeppelin were no longer the hot new rebellious band, they were the band everyone listened to.

The reaction to that was punk. Punk as a major force burnt out quickly, but still inspired the next generation of kids picking up the axes. Add in Priest re-forging metal to also influence the British underground, and by the next round of new bands metal was back and a lot more concise to what we would call metal today.

Check out:

Uriah Heep’s debut
Deep Purple’s In Rock and Machine Head
Rush’s 2112
Lucifer’s Friend’s debut

If you want to listen to 70s hard rock, that is.
Some more Hard Rock to avoid included in the Archives (unclear on its genre tag):
Forget Gordi's 70s suff.
Divlje Jagode's debut (1979) is Hard Rock (out of the tittle track).
Mass (Ger)'s first two are Hard Rock. Don't know about Slaughterhouse.

Some obscure metal albums from the late 70s you may like:
- Bow Wow - Charge & Signal Fire (the other 70s albums by this band are mainly Hard Rock too)
- Granmax - Kiss heaven Goodbye
- Sorcery - Stunt Rock
- Legend - From the Fjords
- Alkana - Welcome to my Paradise
- Ñu - Cuentos de Ayer y de Hoy

If it's half as good as what i've read about i think i'll love it. Japan is always great for crazy shit.

Flower Travellin' Band were way ahead of their time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=e ... HxM&fmt=18