heavy metal (1970)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

It's been assumed that the first appearance of "heavy metal" as a musical
descriptor appeared in the May 1971 issue of _Creem_, in a Mike Saunders
review of Sir Lord Baltimore's album _Kingdom Come_:

http://www.creemmagazine.com/BeatGoesOn/SirLordBaltimore/KingdomCome001.html

As it turns out, Saunders had already used "heavy metal" the previous
November, in a _Rolling Stone_ review of three Humble Pie albums:

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1970 _Rolling Stone_ 12 Nov. (backpages.com) Here they were a noisy,
unmelodic, heavy metal-leaden shit-rock band, with the loud and noisy
parts beyond doubt. ... This album, more of the same 27th-rate heavy metal
crap, is worse than the first two put together, though I know that sounds
incredible.
http://backpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=7520
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--Ben Zimmer