CLEVELAND, Ohio – During a recent appearance on Eddie Trunk’s “Trunk Nation” radio show on Sirius XM Volume, heavy metal legend Rob Halford weighed in on his band Judas Priest’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame candidacy.
“Well, I’ve always likened the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to, like, the NFL or the NBA or baseball,” Halford said. “It’s recognition, you know, and it’s wonderful when you get these kinds of opportunities. So I, for one, would welcome it. I think we deserve it.”
Most metal fans would agree with Halford. However, the Rock Hall has had a strange relationship with the genre over the years.
There haven’t been that many metal or hard rock acts inducted into the Rock Hall: Black Sabbath, Metallica, AC/DC, Deep Purple, Guns N’ Roses, Van Halen and Led Zeppelin, to name a few.
Still, Deep Purple’s induction last year gave fans hope that more honorees were to come. But not a single heavy metal act made the Class of 2017.
That makes us wonder: Which band might be next in line for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Using the Rock Hall’s own criteria of influence and significance, here are the some of the best options:
Judas Priest
Halford is right. Judas Priest is the next logical metal band the Rock Hall Nominating Committee should consider. If Zeppelin, Sabbath and Deep Purple are the holy trinity of the foundation of metal, then Priest is that laid the blueprint for genre’s core sound, ditching the blues influence.
Motorhead
Up until Motorhead, fast-paced metal wasn’t considered a mainstream entity. But the band changed that by fusing punk rock into its sound, emerging as a top-tier act with its 1980 album “Ace of Spades.
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden brought the theatrical style into metal that has become a mainstay for many bands over the past few several decades. If KISS gets credit for creating personas and marketing its band like no other, Maiden deserves the same love (see the iconic mascot Eddie), while also elevating metal’s musicality with dueling guitars and emphatic bass sounds.
Slayer
If you’re looking for the band that truly defined thrash metal, it’s not Metallica. It’s Slayer. “Reign in Blood” is one of the five most important metal albums of all time. The group’s sound was dark, violent and highly influential, paving the way for acts like Pantera, System of a Down, Slipknot and others.
Megadeth
Dave Mustaine would probably already be in the Rock Hall had the nominating committee deemed him worthy of joining Metallica (a group he co-founded). Instead, Mustaine is more known as the godfather of thrash metal for his pioneering guitar work in Megadeth, where his band’s technical ability was on full display, helping cement metal as a true rock and roll art form.
Ozzy Osbourne
Obviously, Ozzy is already in the Rock Hall as a member of Black Sabbath. But he also belongs on the list of artists that should be inducted in the Rock Hall as a solo act as well (Heck, even Ringo Starr got inducted for his solo career). Osbourne is the single biggest individual icon of metal and helped shape 1980s rock with a massive solo career some doubted would succeed.
Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf was the closest contender the metal genre had to making the Class of 2017. The band made the ballot, but ultimately couldn’t work its way into the Rock Hall. Some American metal historians like to credit Steppenwolf as one of the forefathers of metal, as the lyric “heavy metal thunder” from iconic song “Born to Be Wild” is the first use of the phrase “heavy metal” in rock music.
Rainbow
Ritchie Blackmore gets much-deserved credit for his classic guitar riff on Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” But he also pioneered the use of classical rock in speed metal music (dubbed neoclassical music) with Rainbow, which also featured singer Ronnie James Dio.
Uriah Heep
If you want to take that aforementioned holy trinity of metal and make it a fabulous four, next in line would be Uriah Heep. The band followed right behind Zeppelin, Sabbath and Deep Purple’s rise during the 1970s. What separated Uriah Heep was its progressive-rock influence, which was key in expanding the scope of the genre.
Anthrax
Four our final pick, we considered acts like Pantera, Def Leppard, Tool or even Motley Crue. But we had to round out the “Big Four of Thrash Metal” first. Anthrax joins Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth as the major pioneers of the genre that has truly shaped metal for the past 30 years.
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