Attila
Artist: Attila

This is the solo album made by the group that consisted of Billy Joel and drummer Jon Small. Joel tries to make his organ sound like Jimi Hendrix's guitar, and the overall approach is proto-heavy metal, but occasional hints of Joel's later style peep through. [The Back-Trac album is a 1985 reissue of the original, Epic 30030, and the album was... Read More

The Best of Mountain
Artist: Mountain
Community Score: 9.00

Mountain's meteoric ride through the early '70s was as memorable as it was brief -- so much so that this excellent greatest-hits set was released less than four years after the band had inaugurated their career at Woodstock. In retrospect, its easy to understand why the strange chemistry (pun intended) struck between boogie-loving,... Read More

In for the Kill!
Artist: Budgie

Budgie's fourth release, In for the Kill! (originally on MCA), confirmed their consistent metal songwriting. Like past releases, the album features huge metal riffs courtesy of guitarist Tony Bourge and wailing vocals from bassist Burke Shelley. "Crash Course in Brain Surgery" (their second song to be covered by Metallica) contains a repetitive... Read More

First of the Big Bands
Artist: Ashton & Lord

A genial album with unvarnished self-production that finds Lord and Ashton landing more between The Band and Van Morrison than between their erstwhile regular bands; the soul and funk touches are similar to Alan White's solo venture from Yes, which was recorded at about the same time. Ashton and Lord are remarkably restrained in the use of... Read More

Demons and Wizards
Artist: Uriah Heep
Community Score: 9.50

This is the album that solidified Uriah Heep's reputation as a master of gothic-inflected heavy metal. From short, sharp rock songs to lengthy, musically dense epics, Demons and Wizards finds Uriah Heep covering all the bases with style and power. The album's approach is set with its lead-off track, "The Wizard": it starts as a simple acoustic... Read More

Led Zeppelin III
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Community Score: 8.20

On their first two albums, Led Zeppelin unleashed a relentless barrage of heavy blues and rockabilly riffs, but Led Zeppelin III provided the band with the necessary room to grow musically. While there are still a handful of metallic rockers, III is built on a folky, acoustic foundation that gives the music extra depth. And even the rockers... Read More

Grand Funk
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Community Score: 8.33

Grand Funk Railroad's 1970 somewhat eponymous album, their second for Capitol, is characteristic of the classic rock radio sound that would permeate the airwaves of the late 20th century. Grand Funk Railroad was a seminal force in giving the friendlier side of the heavy-rock sound its charm and making it stick. Built on fuzzed-out blues riffs,... Read More

Rock & Roll Outlaws
Artist: Foghat
Community Score: 9.00

After establishing a new level of credibility on record with 1974's Energized, Foghat cranked out another album of boogie rock before the year ended. The result, Rock and Roll Outlaws, is not as consistently inspired as its predecessor but remains a worthwhile listen for the group's fans. This time out, the group settles for a more... Read More

Squawk
Artist: Budgie
Community Score: 9.00

Having acquired a small cult following with its first album, Budgie offered a second dose of abrasive, forceful heavy metal that, like its predecessor, drew on influences ranging from Cream to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Budgie was a band that loved contrasts -- the folk-ish qualities of "Make Me Happy" and the Beatlesque "Rolling Home... Read More

Budgie
Artist: Budgie
Community Score: 9.00

Though not nearly as celebrated as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, or Deep Purple, Budgie was one of the finest heavy metal bands of the early to mid-'70s. The British power trio, formed in 1968, was influenced by Cream in the beginning, but by the time this self-titled debut album was released in 1971, Budgie was obviously paying close... Read More

Master of Reality
Artist: Black Sabbath
Community Score: 8.52

With Paranoid, Black Sabbath perfected the formula for their lumbering heavy metal. On its follow-up, Master of Reality, the group merely repeated the formula, setting the stage for a career of recycling the same sounds and riffs. But on Master of Reality Sabbath still were fresh and had a seemingly endless supply of crushingly heavy riffs to... Read More

Paranoid
Artist: Black Sabbath
Community Score: 8.62

Paranoid was not only Black Sabbath's most popular record (it was a number one smash in the U.K., and "Paranoid" and "Iron Man" both scraped the U.S. charts despite virtually nonexistent radio play), it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. Paranoid refined Black Sabbath's signature sound --... Read More

Black Sabbath
Artist: Black Sabbath
Community Score: 8.51

Black Sabbath's debut album is given over to lengthy songs and suite-like pieces where individual songs blur together and riffs pound away one after another, frequently under extended jams. There isn't much variety in tempo, mood, or the band's simple, blues-derived musical vocabulary, but that's not the point; Sabbath's slowed-down, murky... Read More

UFO 1
Artist: UFO
Community Score: 10.00

Recorded on a shoestring budget, UFO has several challenging sonic moments. The uneven mixes and amateur performances that some listeners might find quaint or innocent could be distracting to others. In their pre-Michael Schenker days, the British band made a much more experimental noise that reflected psychedelic as well as R&B influences... Read More