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I really love this self-invented nongenre. It's the kind of stuff you typically come across every once in a while on odd mixed-style comps (as I obviously tend to do quite often..) but you also occationally spot them on non-HM albums as well as singles.

I'm sure this theme overlaps with many old threads about proto-metal, punk, prog or whatever, but I wanted to approach the subject from this particular angle here, so post away with any cool tunes you've come across and enjoy, whatever the base genre may be. No matter if it's 20% or 80% HM, the subtle "Feel Of The Steel" is what's important here

This was inspired by our small-talk on the prog(?) band Heyoka in the comps-thread, as well as Khnud's rip of one of their singles I just recieved so let's start with that 7" + the comp track again:
..and to mix it up stylewise, this absolute gem from an old UK Horror rock band I recently namedropped in a comp-review:

Don't know if some of the followings fit here but...

Babylonia was a band formed by some former members of Panna Fredda and Era di Acquario (well known italian prog bands), they released just a couple of mediocre poppy 7" in the middle 70's trying a commercial approach but the flip side of one of them is a good example of hard/glam rock, the song Indianapolis has italian lyrics and was dedicated to the famous racing circuit:

Forum Livii from Forlì (Italy) , the italian answer to Black Sabbath? well...no ,just only a song in their first 7" was good while the rest of their discography was easy listening and weak...here is a rare live video on italian national tv in 1972...but what a song...

From Vercelli (north Italy), band was called Segno dello Zodiaco,their album released in 1974 was a concentrate of mushy and sugary pop, only this track stood out:

La Strana Società (from Torino,north Italy) was a cheesy pop/beat band formed in 1971,the only good song (for my taste) was this one:

Great idea for a thread, i'll have to get my thinking cap on. I've got nearly 1500 obscure 60's/70's 45s & EPs sat on my PC, and of those about 70% have just one rocker, with all manner of cheesy drek stinking up the flipsides. It'll be tough to zero in on just a few good examples



Nice to see some love for Nightmare's 'Witch Woman' here, though the rest of their output is uniformly horrible (consider yourselves warned).
Extra praise is due though for their ultra eye-catching (pun intended) 45 pic sleeves.




Thanks for sharing those Italian examples Nonseinormale65, aside from Forum Livii they were all new to me and right up my street musically. Maybe your label should archive these hidden Proto-Metal gems in compilation album form a la the US 'Brown Acid' or Spanish 'Andergraun Vibrations' series, as the olde Italian scene had so many great candidates. 'Acido Bruno'?
BTW, did Forum Livii always have 2 bass players? I don't remember the bass even being that prominent in their material.

Here's a nice example of the 'unintentional' phenom, from a 3 track 1979 EP by UK band Kick. The A side is utter schmaltz, the 3rd song is schizo pomp-rock with prominent saxophone, but track 2 'Goggle Box (Whole Lot Better Than You)' is the perfect embodiment of that one good NWOBHM-adjacent song that every run-of-the-mill pub band had in their repertoire just in case any bikers showed up.

KICK - Goggle Box (Whole Lot Better Than You) (1979) UK

bigfootkit wrote: ↑Sat Mar 22, 2025 4:59 am

Thanks for sharing those Italian examples Nonseinormale65, aside from Forum Livii they were all new to me and right up my street musically. Maybe your label should archive these hidden Proto-Metal gems in compilation album form a la the US 'Brown Acid' or Spanish 'Andergraun Vibrations' series, as the olde Italian scene had so many great candidates. 'Acido Bruno'?
BTW, did Forum Livii always have 2 bass players? I don't remember the bass even being that prominent in their material.

Well,Forum Livii actually were a bunch of multi-instrumentalists and had a lot of line up changes too, the fact is that here one of their bass player Geoffrey Robert Farthing ( aka Jay Roberts from UK) also sings and plays keyboards too...other members were Beppe Pippi guitar and bass,Renzo"Pitone" Tortora guitar and flute,Pasquale Venditto drums

The musicians changed name to the band so many times...first incarnation in late 60 was called The Cliffters (with Venditto and Tortora),a couple of 7" and an album recorded that stayed unreleased



Here a song from the unreleased album,one of the heaviest, but Tortora and Pitone already left the band to form Forum Livii:

OKTAVA from Lithuania .1973 from LP on Melodya. This song have quite "heavy" guitar riff for soviet union period when all rock music were forbidden.

Nonseinormale65 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 22, 2025 10:11 am Here a song from the unreleased album,one of the heaviest:

Wow, what a great song, hopefully some day it surfaces officially with decent sound.
Thanks too for the background on Forum Livii, you inspired me to revisit their 45s & Space Dilemma/Homesick is far better than i'd recalled. Riverside/Mary still sucks, but 2 good tracks out of 4 is a decent success rate when delving into singles of that era.

Here's some more borderline-NWOBHM hidden on yet another 3 track '79 EP, this time courtesy of The Law, who spent the rest of the record playing New Wave/Power-Pop influenced R & B. Bonus points awarded to the guitarist for slipping in some Wayne Kramer licks on his big solo.

The Law - Dead City Kicks (1979) UK

Great and heavy song on this usually pop/pop/rock album.

Hell yeah! I've actually got a list of my "100 favorite 70s metal tracks (not on Metal Archives)" in the works on my RYM, which I'll post as soon as I've finished typing it up. Love all the Italian stuff mentioned so far, all of it new to me! Can't get enough of that scene.

Anyhow here's some favorites, some I'm sure have been shared on the forum before at some point.
Surprise ~ Tyrangatang

Pompy prog rock with one slice of blazing Riot-esque HM. Combined with the spaced out prog section it makes for a really neat track.


Blind Date - Twin Engines

Totally bland power pop album has a crushing instrumental NWOBHM-banger in the middle of the record.

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Rock Drill

Incredibly track from this stalwart act not usually associated with metal. This was actually a foundational influence on Killing Joke and I think the chugging riffs shed some light on the origins of tracks like "The Wait".

Southern Cross - Games

One of the spookiest cosmic coincidences in music! A band called Southern Cross and it ends up being a DEAD RINGER for Dio era Black Sabbath? It is also from BEFORE Quartz - Mainline Riders! Takes awhile to get going but then it explodes.

Cinecyde - My Doll

Incredible Heavy Psych/Proto-doom! Tiger B. Smith/Flower Travelling Band kinda stuff! WILD for this to come out in 1977 and from a punk band no less. The A-side is an equally sick mix of Sabbath and Stooges.

Funkadelic - No Head, No Backstage Pass

And here's funk pioneers Funkadelic with basically the same riff as in "My Doll" only 2 years earlier. "Baby I Owe You Something Good" off the same album is also a really cool atmospheric proto-doom track.

Nonseinormale65 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 22, 2025 1:36 am Don't know if some of the followings fit here but...

A grrreat sextett of proto-Steel to start off my friday Really digged all 6 tracks, while perhaps the 2nd Cliffters and the Segno dello Zodiaco were the favourites..

bigfootkit wrote: ↑Sat Mar 22, 2025 4:59 amNice to see some love for Nightmare's 'Witch Woman' here, though the rest of their output is uniformly horrible (consider yourselves warned)...

I kinda enjoy most of their stuff, mostly since I'm a sucker for all sorts of Horror-themed Rock from the 60's-80's (that "Monster Mash"-vibe) but I agree that only "Which Woman" would be of interest to Headbangers, yes...

That KICK track made me think of 79-81 era Twisted Sister - more than any NWOBHM contemporaries or later-comers, which I find interesting. Cool find!

The Law track was ever so slighly closer to the NWOBHM-sound and I can't help hearing a wee bit of the 'Lizzy there. Great one as well! ...and after grabbing The Bible from the bookshelf and checking - yeah, both are actually mentioned.

lunaboy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 22, 2025 9:54 pm

OKTAVA from Lithuania .1973 from LP on Melodya. This song have quite "heavy" guitar riff for soviet union period when all rock music were forbidden.

Been searching hi & lo for something like this on any old 70's Melodya album but never found anything, so BIG cheers for the tip! Need this for the 100% completist CCCP vinyl collection, if only for scientific/historical purposes..

tbieri wrote: ↑Sun Mar 23, 2025 9:34 am

Great and heavy song on this usually pop/pop/rock album.

Great rippin' power-HardRocker! An earlier, less keyboard'y version (I think...) is featured on this comp:
https://thecorroseum.org/comps/mestovstrechi4.php
I think we even picked it for one the many Corroseum comp-comps in the Downloads-section..

MechaBarbarian wrote: ↑Fri Mar 28, 2025 1:29 pm Hell yeah!

Indeed! Love the Surprise track. This it total '79-80 Metal - plus some progsy weirdness for flavour..
Blind Date - What can I say? Just a great Heavy Metal track
Alex Harvey... - Shocked me. So much Steel in that composition.

MechaBarbarian wrote: ↑Fri Mar 28, 2025 1:29 pmOne of the spookiest cosmic coincidences in music! A band called Southern Cross and it ends up being a DEAD RINGER for Dio era Black Sabbath?

This is double-spot-on enough for anyone to think along the lines of "What might they have cathed up from the backstage after-party of previous tours..?"

Cinecyd - U nailed it w/ the Flower Travelling Band-comparison ...and from a bloody punk-band! Is this the only track in their repertoar of this style?

Funkadelic - 2025-era "problematic"...

To diversify some from the mostly 70's progsy proto-Heavy stüffs, here's VOIVOD before Voivod started Voivod'ing with their Voivodness about 5 years later, especially/Voivodically in the "Dimension Hatröss"/"Nothingface"-style of Voivod'ery:



...and also SciFi lyrics.

PUNISHMENT OF LUXURY were basically UK's answer to DEVO, but with added prog/hr flavours on the LP and later CD-reissue-only demos, and this LP has been a personal top 10 fave from that magic '78-81 era of musical anarchy since the 90's...

@Nenad: Up yer alley, yes?