Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Which had more influence, Sabbath or Led Zep?

Which band had more influence?


  • Total voters
    29
Were Led Zeppelin actually influential? Heavy blues rock with a sideline in folk. That's very of its time. Page and Bonham were influential as individual musicians but that doesn't mean the sound they developed as a band led anywhere. Probably important for the sound that Deep Purple and, well, Black Sabbath developed but not much else. I don't hear them in later metal bands except wrt to the drums. Who does heavy Howlin Wolf covers these days? Or even in the late 70's?
 
I saw both Sabbath and Zep live, despite being essentially a punk fan.

A few years ago, I was in a busy train home, and there were teenagers talking about music

Just as the train pulled into my station, one of them said “Paul saw Sabbath last year”. I just said, as I passed them getting off , “I saw Sabbath in 1978”.
 
Heavy/hard rock takes on blues riffs was already a thing when led zep started up - including afore mentioned blus cheer plus cream, hendrix and the Who (althought they didnt record their take on it until 1970 with Live at Leeds - but Young Mans Blues is more led zep than anything the actual led zep ever did - Townshend has been whinging ever since that Led zep ripped him off). Led Zep didnt originate that sound - but zeroed in on it and made it their own.
Sabbath (and deep purple and the other first wave of metal bands) were influenced by the same early-hard rock and heavy blues that zep were - but sabbath added the darkness and horror themes that came to define metal - and also argualbly inspired the rockier end of goth. Sabbath had greater vision, more charismatic, better songs - but also sounded like they meant it in a way that led zep never did.
 
I saw Led Zep at Knebworth in 79 which influenced my vote, which was very close.
Yeah, me too.
I was 16. It was a sort of post O levels rite of passage with a bunch of school mates, that I went to even though half of us were punk by then.

I think my over riding memory (apart from the gig) was us finding an unattended tent with an "NF" flag on it.

My mate had a dump, but I could only manage a piss.

Great days.
 
Black Sabbath was far more influential, in my view, possibly because they were more working-class than Led Zepplin. Therefore, their success was seen as both more inspirational and more attainable as role models. As I remember students we knew liked Led Zepplin as they were 'musicians' and normal people liked Black sabbath as they were more 'like us'.

However, Led Zepplin did inspire one of the greatest bands ever to come out of America, who are now the subject of a film

 
My first Sabbath album was "Heaven and Hell". The amazing sound, Martin Birch production, Dio's vocals and the iconic cover.

Loved it back then, love it still.
 
Last edited:
Have loved them both since I was about 10 years old and both have an impeccable run of LPs up to the late 70s. I can’t choose between them as they’re both just as pioneering and influential on music that has followed and they occupy different but no less important spaces in my musical world. First Sabbath LP I had was “Vol 4” and first Zep was “LZ 3” - could still happily listen to them back to back on a loop as those LPs cover a hell of a lot of varied musical territory between them. Asking me to choose one is like favouring one child over another.
 
Third who saw Zep at Knebworth ( amongst other places ).
If we need to bring this debate down to the finer points; the two bands were both loud rock bands but were quite different.
Sabbath were more basic and raw whereas Zeppelin were much more heavily produced. I imagine Sabbath knocked a track together
in a day or two whereas Zeppelin could have taken weeks.
I saw both bands numerous times along with the likes of The Who, Purple, Quo Etc. and enjoyed them all. That is what they are for to be
enjoyed. Was one better than the other or did this or did that; who cares.
 
The late-period (or maybe middle-period now, depending how we're measuring) Ministry album Houses of the Mole is apparently a Zeppelin reference:
Jourgensen has stated that the name Houses of the Molé is a tribute to Led Zeppelin's 1973 album Houses of the Holy.[2] Mole itself is a Mexican sauce made from chocolate that is nearly black in color, an image that Jourgensen believes represents crude oil.

Former Ministry drummer Rey Washam stated in an interview that he worked on Houses of the Molé, for which he received no credit, and also stated that Ministry had problems properly compensating all of the musicians who contributed to their records. He also referred to "someone" in Ministry as being a "liar" and "full of shit", and disputed the statement and common belief that Al Jourgensen was solely responsible for writing almost all of Ministry's material. He also said "Houses of the Molé" was "the worst [album] title in the world".
As Ministry album titles that are puns on 70s rock albums go, it's no Dark Side of the Spoon, but also perhaps it would be a good thing if Al Jourgensen was slightly less obsessed with making puns on 70s rock titles in general.
 
The late-period (or maybe middle-period now, depending how we're measuring) Ministry album Houses of the Mole is apparently a Zeppelin reference:

As Ministry album titles that are puns on 70s rock albums go, it's no Dark Side of the Spoon, but also perhaps it would be a good thing if Al Jourgensen was slightly less obsessed with making puns on 70s rock titles in general.
In the same vein The Butthole Surfers' Hairway to Steven is clearly a Zep reference.
 
Oh yeah, forgot about that one. And Joke About Jamaica by the Hold Steady. Still think the answer's probably Sabbath though.
 
And there was that time the Sun tried to call Richard Burgon a nazi for playing with a band who had an album cover that was ripped off/playing with a Black Sabbath album cover:

Has there ever been a libel case, let alone a 21st century one, where a Led Zeppelin album cover was the crucial piece of evidence?
 
I can’t think of any band that owes its sound to Led Zep. But if you want to hear Sabbath riffs galore, check out the genres of doom metal, stoner metal, sludge metal, and so on. Countless bands doing the de-tuned sludgy riffage straight out of the Sabbath playbook.
 
I can’t think of any band that owes its sound to Led Zep. But if you want to hear Sabbath riffs galore, check out the genres of doom metal, stoner metal, sludge metal, and so on. Countless bands doing the de-tuned sludgy riffage straight out of the Sabbath playbook.
Oh danny la rouge you should try getting out more. Also it's all very subjective. I can hear Zep influence in Metallica, Slayer, Megadeath, Avenged Sevenfold, Muse, Accept et al. But I could also argue that I can hear Sabbath in bits of their work.
 
Were Led Zeppelin actually influential? Heavy blues rock with a sideline in folk. That's very of its time. Page and Bonham were influential as individual musicians but that doesn't mean the sound they developed as a band led anywhere.



These lads went on to be quite a big deal. Helping clear away the endless swathes of post-Sabbath hair metal dogshit.

And this heavily Zeppelin-influenced lot were arguably the British equivalent; showing everyone that rock music didn't actually need to be as dull as a cold tea enema and bootstrapping the next decade of British guitar music in the process:

 


These lads went on to be quite a big deal. Helping clear away the endless swathes of post-Sabbath hair metal dogshit.

And this heavily Zeppelin-influenced lot were arguably the British equivalent; showing everyone that rock music didn't actually need to be as dull as a cold tea enema and bootstrapping the next decade of British guitar music in the process:



I can hear a touch of Zeppelin in Nirvana and a touch more of Sabbath in them I think Cobain described Nirvana as The Beatles + Black Sabbath. An oversimplification of course but an odd mention for team Zeppelin.

Had no idea that the Stone Roses sited Led Zeppelin as in influence. That's a real surprise. All the Led Zeppelin fans I knew at the time hated them.
 
Last edited:
One area that probably won't get mention is just how complex LZ were rhythmically and how seminal they were for prog metal and maybe even math rock.

Rush were basically Led Zeppelin + Yes. And love them or hate them but Rush begat the entire prog metal sub-genre, (along with Dream Theater.)

In my mind this is the main still existing trace of Led Zeppelin in contemporary music.

Otherwise they're really the tail end of 60's British blues rock.
 
One area that probably won't get mention is just how complex LZ were rhythmically and how seminal they were for prog metal and maybe even math rock.
It’s their more proggy stuff I like the least, tbh. Really the second CD of Mothership is where I lose interest.
 
Back
Top Bottom