Your top 12 Hard Rock albums?

For anyone - or no one interested: Some seem not to take into consideration that classic Hard Rock will soon be old enough to reach retirement. Most of the defining songs don't feel hard at all for a metalhead, or just a "modern rock fan" anymore. We're not nearly as scared watching the most terrifying horror movies from the same era either. This doesn't mean that The Omen has stopped being a horror movie - or that Seven Seas of Rhye has stopped being Hard Rock.

Also a band only needed a few hard rockers for an album to qualify. The rest of the album could be more or less all over the place. But believe me, classic Hard Rock is still more than "brutal" enough for my mom and dad. Even the hardest Queen songs are a tad too much. And Deep Purple outside of Smoke on the Water - just forget about it. Here's how I view the bands that some people (including myself) are questioning in one way or another:

Black Sabbath in the 1970's = Hard Rock / Heavy Metal

Queen in the 1970's = I think Queen's three first albums feature more than enough genuine Hard Rock to easily qualify. To me they are Hard Rock/Classic Rock (among other things) throughout the decade, really.   

Heart in the 1970's = Hard Rock, Folk Rock (Classic Rock)

The Who in the 1970's, but I mainly know Who's Next = Hard Rock (Classic Rock)

Jethro Tull Benefit = "To Cry You a Song" is a Hard Rock song, the rest is proggy Folk Rock.   

Motörhead after their self titled debut = just Heavy Metal will do just fine. But a more traditionally rooted Hard Rock is always present.

Judas Priest after Rocka Rolla = Heavy Metal (otherwise I would probably have included Sin After Sin). Maybe I think of them differently from Black Sabbath because the latter band always got a groove, and are more Blues infused.    

...and aside from the Grunge tag I think Alice in Chains (Dirt) and Soundgarden (Batmotorfinger + Superunknown) are both closer to Heavy Rock bordering on Heavy Metal to me. But maybe some would say the same about QotSA.

The Kinks = why on earth are they even mentioned?

-finally I guess I consider both Flower Travellin' Band (Satori) and High Tide (Sea Shanties) too Heavy and too Psychedelic to be Hard Rock. To me Hard Rock needs just a little more straight forward/meat-and-potatoes kind of approach than those represent. But I thought of including those two albums myself. Black Widow (Sacrifice) again feel a tad to soft and nice to be considered anything "hard". I still thought of that album too for my own list.   

= I just mean my opinion or my association.

^ + that too

David_D wrote: I have to say that I don't understand all the talk about that Black Sabbath, in the first half of the 1970s, may as well be classified as Hard Rock. To me, Black Sabbath is THE band who most clearly define Metal as a style distinguished from Hard Rock. If not them, who then?

Most bands are more than just one thing - or one genre. 1970's Black Sabbath were deeply rooted in the blues and were "always" both Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. Not nessecarely in the same song (but that too, kind of) - but on the same album. One can say Metal started with Sabbath, but not because of Evil Woman...

Edited by Saperlipopette! - December 17 2024 at 03:18

David_D wrote: Anyway, to me, Black Sabbath is The Godfather of Metal.

Nobody has claimed that they aren't. Because everyone knows that its true. It's just that Black Sabbath are commonly considered to be Hard Rock simultanously. It's really no more of a mystery than a band being labeled New Wave, Post Punk and Goth Rock etc... It's completely normal.

Edited by Saperlipopette! - December 17 2024 at 21:52

I tried to stay away from pure metal albums but let's face it there can be thin line between hard rock and heavy metal. That was especially true in the 70s. I think starting with the first Iron Maiden album the line became more clear. I deliberately left off Black Sabbath though even though I could have easily put Paranoid or another album by them on the list. 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - December 17 2024 at 12:26

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: I tried to stay away from pure metal albums but let's face it there can be thin line between hard rock and heavy metal. That was especially true in the 70s. I think starting with the first Iron Maiden album the line became more clear. I deliberately left off Black Sabbath though even though I could have easily put Paranoid or another album by them on the list.

Edited by David_D - 16 hours 47 minutes ago at 08:26