For some reason the term "heavy rock" never really caught on. I think back in the 70's and 80's there were several bands who were more than just regular hard rock(ie Foreigner or ZZ Top)but not quite heavy metal. I think what happened was when the term heavy metal started to get used bands would get lumped into that category even if they didn't really quite fit that box entirely(Queen, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple to name a few). So it sort of got to be where you were either hard rock or heavy metal with no real acknowledgement of anything in between. I think a lot of debates about whether this band or that band is heavy metal could be settled just by using the term "heavy rock." I think at one point it was used(probably just before HM became common)but not so much anymore. I think ultimately music critics just saw no need to use the term heavy rock because they didn't see a need for it. Any opinions on this or suggestions for other bands you might categorize this way?

Bands who I would categorize as "heavy rock" include the following:

Led Zeppelin

Queen

Van Halen

Def Leppard

Deep Purple

Rainbow

Whitesnake

Maybe some "hair metal" bands(I'll let you guys decide which ones)

Uriah Heep

UFO

Thin Lizzy

Several grunge bands(except Pearl Jam who aren't really that heavy imo)

Aerosmith (admittedly debatable)

Kiss

Rush

Judas Priest (first album only)

AC/DC

Blue Oyster Cult

hard rock and not heavy rock imo:

Foreigner

Journey (although some stuff borders on "heavy rock")

Kansas

ZZ Top

Boston (same as Journey with the above)

Styx

Heavy Metal

Hard Rock

I don't think I've described a band as heavy rock, maybe ever.

Well, it's not just you. I think that's how most people categorize this stuff. I've had arguments with people about whether Def Leppard, Van Halen, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Rush and others are heavy metal and it just seems to me that hard rock doesn't fit but heavy metal doesn't either. I see the debate about Rush a lot and it drives me up the wall.  Van Halen or Rush in the same category(as far as heaviness goes)as Foreigner, Bon Jovi as ZZ Top? Seriously? Eddie Van Halen definitely had an influence on heavy metal so I can see them sort of fitting in especially when they started out. 

I just added Blue Oyster Cult to the list. For me they are the perfect example of what I'm talking about. Heavy metal? No not really. Hard rock? To me they were beyond hard rock and that's the same thing with AC/DC but like AC/DC not really full blown metal either. It doesn't have to be heavy rock but there should be another term instead of just hard rock and heavy metal. Maybe extra hard rock or almost metal. Lol.

That term has already been used. The point of this thread is that there are bands who I think go beyond standard hard rock and yet aren't typically(or always) considered heavy metal(AC/DC is a good example).

Edit: For VH I think they were beyond hard rock especially the first DLR era albums. Would you put VH in the same category as Boston, Foreigner or ZZ Top? I wouldn't. I have even seen VH referred to as glam metal but they were before that and other than DLR's hair nothing really glammy about them.

Yeah, they made songs like "jump." Black Sabbath made songs like "planet caravan" and "changes." ;)

Well sort of. I think they were in between hard rock and heavy metal and the same thing with the other bands on my list. That's why I think there should be some term for stuff in between like "heavy rock." Apparently I've lost my marbles though. 

I get where u coming from.......Here's the deal, at least for me. To call VH hard rock is fine for me, to call them heavy metal is not, for me. So for you they are somewhere in between, but those parameters of in between become so minute that they end up applying to almost all of them. And I don't even know what the parameters would be.

When discussing rock bands with rock fans (not prog fans) I think they are more general, I think my rock friends would never label VH as heavy metal. One of my friends, he's Swiss, absolutely loves AC/DC, Judas Priest, Scorps, Iron Maiden.....Our families go to Scorpions and Iron Maiden concerts, he's a Maiden club member so he buys the tickets and I pay him back, we get great seats.

He would not consider VH metal, nor Iron Maiden/Judas Priest hard rock, nor VH metal lite....Us prog fans are so used to navigating 45 different sub-genres within one major genre, its 2nd nature to us to subdivide a band, we are the only group that does that.......It's a wall we have built. "Git off my lawn!!!"

 

Ahh yes a duty cleansing.....good for the soul!
 

Yep. Close enough. 

Kansas isn't hard rock.

ZZ Top is blues rock.

Styx is pomp rock, like Angel.

Boston is arena rock / AOR.

Journey started life as "Prog Related" (just kidding) and went AOR / arena rock.

Kansas not hard rock? What do you consider them(other than prog rock)? Wikipedia lists them as hard rock(among other genres)so that's good enough for me. Same thing with Styx and Boston.

I am not very familiar with Angel. I guess I need to check them out. 

Anyway, all your opinion. Stop speaking like you have the final say on everything(other than your own opinion). 

What's with the 'tude? Have fun.

Ha ha. I knew you would respond with something like that. You're so predictible. 

You're predictable as a Jack-in-the-Box.  (Notice it's a comparison. I'm not calling you that.  )

Nope, not classy at all. It's used commonly as a descriptor, not a label, e.g. "the heavy rock of ___ can be likened to ___," etc.

No need to put the word in bold. I know what it means.  See, I bet you didn't think I was going to point that out. I'm not so predictible after all am I?   I knew you would respond yet again by calling me predictible so that makes you just as predictible(if not more so).  

You homeboys carry on! 

Def Leppard, Queen, Blue Oyster Cult and early Led Zeppelin are merely hard rock? Ok. Whatever. Lol. 

Not really....you can't list a bunch of bands and then lump them there. Like I said, to me the difference between Hard Rock and Heavy Rock is probably minute. You have to define your parameters for this Heavy Rock, not tell me band names. Similar to PA definitions, define the attributes and people can then decide where a band fits.

Def Leppard = Hard Rock, Glam Rock

Queen = Art Rock

BOC = could be several, Prog Rock, Hard Rock, Psych Rock

Led Zeppelin = Blues Band with Attitude 

How do you feel about the term proto metal? I think that has been used to describe Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and maybe a few others. 

I think Queen at least did metal or metallish songs although I wouldn't call them pure metal. The same thing with BOC(tell me godzilla isn't metallish for it's time period). 

What I think is if ur creating a Rock database then yea, Proto-x should exist......but for me and the bulk of general rock fans that I want to talk to, talking these deeper sub-genres will only make them go "WTH man!!" 

See Godzilla has a ton of metal to it, but now you are talking 1977 very heavy for that time, today not so much with bands like Anthrax, Megadeth heck even Iron Maiden.....Songs evolve based on time frame and listeners and probably are right to be re-classified.

I could never call anything Queen recorded as metal(ish), hard rock yes. Queen was recording during the Black Sabbath days, so that is my comparison. To me that is why Classic Rock term has become so popular, it defines an era.

The Metal Evolution chart is really good, what I like is they define years for each sub-genre....This one is good too because they define years to consider...some prog circles call 21st Century Schizoid Man as metal, maybe in 1969...but never today!

used the Heavy Rock genre very much back in the 70/80/90's, and that applied for bands like Rush, Triumph, but also a lot of hammond-organ driven bands (Atomic Rooster, for ex)

But the difference between Hard and Heavy was minute and the line between them not easily drawn, but generally Heavy was a bit proggier than Hard, in our buddies' circles, because it included some dramatics.

I also read that the terms hard rock and heavy metal were used interchangeably for a while in the 70s. But in the second part of the 70s, heavier sounds appeared with bands like Judas Priest and Motorhead and further on with NWOBHM. 

Heavy rock? Best classification for a band like Black Sabbath back in the day. 

Hard rock and heavy rock is the same thing, although some hard rock rocks harder than other hard rock 

The example with Van Halen makes sense. I don't mind them being called hard rock, glam metal or heavy metal. None of them I find wrong.  

Never used the term "heavy rock". A band was either "hard rock" or "heavy metal". Let's not make up silly sh*t where it doesn't belong. When I think of "hard rock" I think of....

Or...

Journey? 

I do too(sometimes at least). I'm glad to see I'm not the only one although we definitely seem to be in the minority. Definitely a grey area and I'm rather surprised that some of the other music people on here can't see it(or hear it).  For example I've been listening to the early Van Halen albums lately(to honor the late great EVH) and for me I don't really hear hard rock. I hear something beyond it. Something almost metallish(actually it was at least metallish and in fact wikipedia classifies them as both heavy metal and hard rock). Someone on here implied that it can't be metal because it would have to be as heavy as Black Sabbath. That's nonsense. In that case everything in the eighties couldn't be metal if it's not as heavy as slayer and then iron maiden wouldn't be HM. Lot's of stuff that is considered metal was not as heavy as BS even in the eighties. Regardless, I'm not saying VH were metal but they came pretty close in the early days(imo)and were definitely heavier than standard hard rock. To call something like Queen's "stone cold crazy" just plain old hard rock is a bit off the mark too. 

I do too(sometimes at least). I'm glad to see I'm not the only one although we definitely seem to be in the minority. Definitely a grey area and I'm rather surprised that some of the other music people on here can't see it(or hear it).  For example I've been listening to the early Van Halen albums lately(to honor the late great EVH) and for me I don't really hear hard rock. I hear something beyond it. Something almost metallish(actually it was at least metallish and in fact wikipedia classifies them as both heavy metal and hard rock). Someone on here implied that it can't be metal because it would have to be as heavy as Black Sabbath. That's nonsense. In that case everything in the eighties couldn't be metal if it's not as heavy as slayer and then iron maiden wouldn't be HM. Lot's of stuff that is considered metal was not as heavy as BS even in the eighties. Regardless, I'm not saying VH were metal but they came pretty close in the early days(imo)and were definitely heavier than standard hard rock. To call something like Queen's "stone cold crazy" just plain old hard rock is a bit off the mark too. 

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If an album has 10 songs and 7 of them are heavy metal and 3 of them are soft rock ballads....then what?? The next argument will be each song......bah!!

Hard Rock will live forever!

"Heavy Metal" + "Soft Rock" ÷ "Hard Rock" = Heavy Rock! 

Dude...ur whacked 

Ha ha. You just described Queen and Led Zeppelin although add folk rock and a bit of art rock/prog rock for Zepp also.

That's a perfect mathematical summary!

 

That's the kind of maths you can't do on a pocket calculator.

All your opinion. Stop speaking like you have the final say on Queen and Led Zeppelin. 

Good thing my trusty abacus is nearby. 

Heavy rock ---> (hard rock + 1/2 heavy metal) - soft rock

That's a nice physics equation for you.