Here’s a fun little game to play. I’ll dig up an old song, say at least 30 years old, one that rocks really hard. I’ll link to a YouTube video of it, preferably an actual video recording of the band performing it, and then pose the question, is it metal, or not?

As I’ve mentioned before, whether or not something is ‘metal’ is not easy to define, and it has more to do with style than substance. In the 1970’s and early 80’s, heavy metal was just starting to emerge and evolve, so it’s especially hard to determine whether or not some of the heavy songs from this era could really be considered metal or not. But it’s fun to take a guess.

This week, Budgie’s “Breadfan” from 1973:

Wikipedia says: It’s metal.

My take: Yup, it’s metal. It features fast, distorted, grungy guitars, distinctive thumping bass lines, and a simple drum pattern. If I had to classify it, I’d say it sits somewhere between speed metal and progressive metal, thanks to the lovely melodic interlude in the middle of the song that makes me think that perhaps Opeth listened to a little Budgie in their youth.

Such a great song. I think that fast, dirty guitar alone qualifies it as metal.

Your thoughts?

Image credit: By @abrunvoll (Own work) (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0), via Flickr.