Which Band is the Most Influential To Metal In Your Opinion?

All of theese bands have been highly influential, but I would say maien, because of their guitar harmonic influence on the metal scene. Without maiden we would not even have the Gothenburg scene to begin with, and Metallica and Helloween for instance would not sound the same at all.

Up The Irons!!

Record setting # of updates! Trophy in the mail.

They were/are all influential, but I guess I have to go with Sabbath. The autopilot answer.

Well it all started with black sabbath, but still i think maiden are the most influential

Each one is influential in their own right: Sabbath pretty much kick started the metal scene, Maiden and Priest pioneered the twin-guitar work that is frequently heard in metal today (and Maiden could be disputed as pioneering triple-guitar now, so we'll have to wait and see whether that comes to anything in the future), Slayer kick started death metal (which is somewhat ironic, as they don't think they are death metal from what I've read), Metallica are the most famous of the thrash metal scene (we'll skip over the nineties and the first half of the previous decade), Motorhead basically found a way to create music that both metalheads and punk fans like and I can't comment much about Zeppelin beyond the fact they wrote Stairway To Heaven (which is possibly their best known piece) and Heartbreaker. If I really had to pick the most influential out of all of them, I'd probably go with Sabbath, with Maiden and Priest tied for second.

Without Black Sabbath heavy metal wouldn't exist.

Has to be Sabbath. That's where it began. Never considered Zeppelin as a metal band. More of a rock band that influenced the likes of Kiss, Aerosmith and all the bands of that ilk.

I can't deny Sabbath's influence on everything metal... But I'll vote for Led Zeppelin just because I like them more...

Black Sabbath! of course. The fathers of Metal.

Written by truenoacero on 11.07.2011 at 14:01

Without Black Sabbath heavy metal wouldn't exist.

Oh yeah, it would. That's so naive to say this, omg there was a flow which BS was among the first to swim in. That's it, no Sabbath religion please.

Judas Priest. Exciter anyone?

Sabbath then zeppelin in my opinion . iron maiden are just followers.

It all started with Sabbath but The New Wave of British Heavy Metal's era highly pushed by Maiden only!!

Up the Irons!

Black Sabbath, they pretty much invented the genre of metal. And other than Led Zeppelin (who I consider more hard-rock than metal) all the bands mentioned in the poll would consider Black Sabbath a big influence on their music.

Boring answer but true...it's sabbath

JETHRO TULL

Written by Fat & Sassy! on 11.07.2011 at 20:58

JETHRO TULL

King Crimson + Frank Zappa > Jethro Tull.

Just sayin.

Written by [user id=115335] on 11.07.2011 at 21:04

Written by Fat & Sassy! on 11.07.2011 at 20:58

JETHRO TULL

King Crimson + Frank Zappa > Jethro Tull.

Just sayin.

I was being a smartass with my original comment, but yes. I can at least agree with the Zappa bit. ;P

/derailing of derivative thread successful

Hard to choose, but in my opinion Maiden and Sabbath spawned countless derivatives, and influenced a good number of innovators to create a template for future metal bands..

Written by truenoacero on 11.07.2011 at 14:01

Without Black Sabbath heavy metal wouldn't exist.

Without Zeppelin, Sabbath may not have sounded nearly the same though.

Still I voted Maiden though. Even though I think LZ kickstarted metal, they aren't too influential to metal nowadays.

Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. Black Sabbath influenced the early heavy metal scene for the most part, but Iron Maiden influenced a lot more bands and styles. Judas Priest helped out a lot with that as well.

Written by Coolingsrock on 11.07.2011 at 17:09

Sabbath then zeppelin in my opinion . iron maiden are just followers.

You are aware that your statement is ludicrous correct?
IMO Zeppelin > Maiden = false. And Maiden are followers, followers of what exactly?

OMG Maiden is not winning

Written by Chainer on 12.07.2011 at 01:19

Written by Coolingsrock on 11.07.2011 at 17:09

Sabbath then zeppelin in my opinion . iron maiden are just followers.

You are aware that your statement is ludicrous correct?
IMO Zeppelin > Maiden = false. And Maiden are followers, followers of what exactly?

whatever not followers ..they are nothing alike but are both amazing. anyway agree to disagree cause thats what these topics are all about.

The evolution of music in a certain sense towards metal ---- beatles->sabbath>judas>iron maiden>thrash scene(the best)-> ..........the ever going cycle.
and thousands of bands in between.

Thanks for stating opinions

Most influential prob black sabbath but i could say judas priest since ive seen so many bands try to be like them too... but i like all three the same

1) Black Sabbath, 2) Iron Maiden & 3) Metallica

Black Sabbath for sure...

by the way, remove zeppelin from this poll immediately, because if you're considering classic rock bands as influences, then imo Deep Purple, Cream, Steppenwolf, Rush, ACDC and Blue Oyster Cult were way more influential on the scene than LZ ever was...

My vote goes to Sabbath, for being one of the originals. A few people may dispute which band was really the first true metal band, between Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and sometimes even The Who. I never really considered The Who to be much of a metal band, at all, but they do have some heavy riffs in their catalog. Zeppelin definitely started out with some heavy songs, and they even give me inspiration to take heavy songs in different directions. They are a very diverse band, shown just over the course of 9 studio albums.
...But the top spot for me will always belong to Black Sabbath. They created the dark, twisted and beautiful bastard child that we know and love, called Heavy Metal.