60 Fun Facts About Heavy Metal

Which three British bands, all founded in 1968, are named as heavy metal's most famous pioneers?

All three were often derided by critics while filling stadiums.

The first use of 'heavy metal' in a song lyric, describing a motorcycle, comes from which 1968 track?

Steppenwolf's 'heavy metal thunder' became the anthem of Easy Rider a year later.

Which Beat writer used 'the Heavy Metal Kid' as a character name in his 1961 novel The Soft Machine?

His follow-up Nova Express used 'heavy metal' as a metaphor for addictive drugs.

Black Sabbath's heavy, down-tuned sound is partly credited to which accident of Tony Iommi's?

Unable to play normally, he tuned down and leaned on simple power chords.

Black Sabbath took their name from a 1963 horror film starring whom?

Geezer Butler noticed people queuing to be scared and the band wrote a song of the same name.

Before settling on Black Sabbath, the Birmingham band went by which name?

Before that they were the Polka Tulk Blues Band.

Which 1970 Black Sabbath album, alongside their debut, is one of the two records that codified heavy metal?

The self-titled debut is generally accepted as the first heavy metal album; Deep Purple in Rock came out the same year.

Led Zeppelin's name reportedly came from a joke that a proposed supergroup would go down like what?

Peter Grant dropped the 'a' from 'lead' so Americans would not say 'leed'.

The Montreux Casino fire in 'Smoke on the Water' started during whose concert?

A fan fired a flare gun into the ceiling; Deep Purple finished recording Machine Head in a hotel corridor.

Which band did the 1975 Guinness Book name 'the globe's loudest' for a 1972 London concert?

They have sold over 100 million records.

Which Sounds journalist coined the term 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal'?

Iron Maiden, Saxon and Def Leppard led the charge, dropping the blues and speeding up.

Which NWOBHM band first topped the UK album chart, with 1981's No Sleep 'til Hammersmith?

Lemmy had been fired from Hawkwind in 1975 before forming the band.

Iron Maiden's mascot, who appears on every album cover, is called what?

Eddie the Head was drawn by illustrator Derek Riggs.

Which Iron Maiden singer flew the band's touring jet, 'Ed Force One', as a licensed airline pilot?

They upgraded to an ex-Air France 747 for the 2016 Book of Souls tour.

Judas Priest singer Rob Halford famously rode what onto the stage?

In 1991 he collided with a drum riser hidden in dry ice and finished the show before going to hospital.

In a 1990 US trial, Judas Priest were accused of hiding a subliminal 'do it' in a cover of which song?

The families of two young men who shot themselves sued; the case was dismissed.

Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat onstage in January 1982 in which city?

He thought it was rubber; he later got rabies shots and eventually sold a plush bat toy with a detachable head.

Which singer popularised the 'devil horns', saying it came from his Italian grandmother's evil-eye gesture?

Gene Simmons of Kiss tried to trademark the gesture in 2017.

Before replacing Ozzy in Black Sabbath in 1979, Ronnie James Dio fronted which Ritchie Blackmore band?

He later formed Dio, whose 1983 debut Holy Diver produced 'Rainbow in the Dark'.

Which band controversially won the first hard rock/metal Grammy in 1989 over ...And Justice for All?

Crest of a Knave beat ...And Justice for All, and the Academy was widely mocked.

Thrash metal's 'Big Four' are Slayer, Anthrax, the makers of Master of Puppets, and which band?

Three German bands, Kreator, Sodom and Destruction, carried the style to Europe.

Which Slayer song about Mengele made Columbia refuse to distribute Reign in Blood in 1986?

Geffen picked it up but left it off its official release schedule.

Which hip-hop group name-checked Anthrax on 'Bring the Noise' and later re-recorded it with them?

Guitarist Scott Ian wore their T-shirt on stage before the collaboration.

Death metal's name is credited partly to a 1984 demo and 1985 song by which Bay Area band?

Florida's Death and Ohio's Necrophagia are the other seminal acts.

Which stave church was the first burned in Norway's black metal arsons, in June 1992?

The cover of Burzum's EP Aske ('ashes') shows the ruin.

Which Mayhem member was murdered in 1993 by Burzum's Varg Vikernes?

Vikernes was convicted of murder and arson in May 1994.

Mayhem's vocalist Per Ohlin pioneered black metal's face paint because he wanted to look like what?

His 1991 suicide was infamously photographed by Euronymous with a disposable camera.

Which Texas metal guitarist was shot dead on stage in Columbus, Ohio, in December 2004?

He was performing with his post-Pantera band Damageplan.

Pantera's 1990 album Cowboys from Hell is credited with popularising which subgenre?

The band later declared it their 'official' debut despite four earlier glam-era records.

Which of these bands is NOT listed among the nu metal wave that broke through in the late 1990s?

Nu metal mixed in hip-hop and DJs; Ozzfest, launched in 1996, gave it a stage.

Slipknot, famous for its masked nine-piece line-up, formed in which US state?

They settled on nine members from 1999 until bassist Paul Gray's death in 2010.

Nu metal pioneers Korn hail from which California city?

Three founders had played together in a band called L.A.P.D.

Sepultura's 1996 album Roots was partly recorded with which indigenous Brazilian tribe?

The band from Belo Horizonte folded tribal percussion and chanting into groove metal.

System of a Down, whose 'Chop Suey!' was pulled from radio after 9/11, share what heritage?

They formed in Glendale, California, in 1994.

Tool's Fear Inoculum arrived in 2019 after how long a gap since their previous album?

The band only put its catalogue on streaming that same month, one of the last major holdouts.

Rammstein, famous for pyrotechnic shows, formed in 1994 in which city?

Their six-man line-up has never changed.

Babymetal began as a sub-unit of which Japanese idol group?

The concept fused heavy metal with Japanese idol pop; their backing band is the Kami Band.

Ghost's frontman, revealed in 2017 to be Tobias Forge, first performed under what persona?

The single 'Cirice' won the band the 2016 Grammy for Best Metal Performance.

Which country's monster-masked band Lordi won Eurovision 2006 with 'Hard Rock Hallelujah'?

Mr Lordi is the only constant member and redesigns the costumes for every album.

Wacken Open Air, called the 'Mecca of heavy metal', is held each August in which country?

Around 85,000 fans from 80-plus countries descend on the Schleswig-Holstein village.

The UK's Download Festival, launched at Donington Park in 2003, succeeded which earlier festival there?

Download draws 75,000-80,000 a year and is the UK's largest rock festival.

Mötley Crüe's metal umlauts were reportedly inspired by what?

Vince Neil suggested the dots while the band was drinking the beer.

The idiom 'up to eleven' originated in which 1984 mockumentary?

Rob Reiner's debut also gave the world drummers who die in 'bizarre gardening accidents'.

The magazine Kerrang!, launched in 1981, is named after what?

It began as a one-off 'Heavy Metal Special' from the newspaper Sounds.

Which folk singer testified with Dee Snider and Frank Zappa at the 1985 'porn rock' Senate hearing?

The PMRC, founded by Tipper Gore and other 'Washington Wives', got its Parental Advisory sticker.

The PMRC said 'Under the Blade' was about sadomasochism; Dee Snider told the Senate it was really about what?

Ozzy was sued the next year over 'Suicide Solution' and cleared.

Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen kept playing after losing which limb in a 1984 car crash near Sheffield?

Doctors reattached the arm but infection forced amputation; he drums with a custom electronic kit.

Which of these was Motörhead founder Lemmy's band before Motörhead?

He was a member from 1971 to 1975.

Which Kiss bassist filed to trademark the devil-horns hand gesture in 2017?

He had already claimed to be first to flash it, on the 1977 Love Gun cover.

Dave Mustaine formed his own thrash band in 1983 after being fired from which group?

Megadeth finally won a Grammy in 2017 for 'Dystopia'.

Between 1983 and 1984, heavy metal's share of all US record sales jumped from 8% to what?

Kerrang! and Metal Hammer launched in the same boom, and Billboard noted the audience getting older, younger and more female.

Which San Francisco band's 1968 cover of 'Summertime Blues' is often called the first true metal recording?

It appeared on their debut album Vincebus Eruptum in January 1968.

Which Creem critic is credited with popularising the term 'heavy metal' in the early 1970s?

His essays on Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath spread the label, which many critics then used as a putdown.

Which country, with 50-plus metal bands per 100,000 people, is the 'Promised Land of Heavy Metal'?

That is more metal bands per capita than any other nation in the world.

Which 1986 Metallica album was thrash metal's first Platinum record?

It brought thrash into the Billboard top 40 for the first time.

Which three German bands were central to bringing thrash metal to Europe?

The style itself began in the US, with the Bay Area scene leading the way.

Which Swedish band led black metal's first wave and later inspired Viking metal and folk metal?

Venom, Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost were the other first-wave leaders.

Which of these bands was among the mid-1980s founders of doom metal?

Doom metal slowed the music to a crawl and traces its roots to early Black Sabbath.

Progressive metal adopts the compositional approach of King Crimson and which Canadian trio?

US innovators of the style included Queensrÿche, Fates Warning and Dream Theater.

Which US band was called the most commercially successful American metal band from 1970 to 1976?

They are credited with establishing the 1970s success formula of continuous touring.