Blue Cheer

A 1986 anthology of tracks from Blue Cheer's original 1966-1971 run bore the title Louder Than God, and no band of their era more richly earned that title. Many have cited Blue Cheer as the first heavy metal band, and if their music doesn't always sound like metal, on 1968's Vincebus Eruptum and Outsideinside, they were inarguably heavy, playing raw, blues-based rock with a bludgeoning impact and monolithic guitar sound that inspired hundreds of bands to turn up their amps and summon mountains of noise. While Blue Cheer embraced a more polished approach on 1969's more conventionally bluesy Blue Cheer and 1971's folk-infused Oh! Pleasant Hope, they reunited with 1985's The Beast Is Back, which took them back to their roots in proto-metal hard rock, the path they would follow for the rest of their career.