Forgotten heavy bands from late 60's to early 70's

King Crimson. Try Red or USA

Budgie have already been mentioned who were an inspiration for Metallica and who covered two Budgie tracks. They just chose a crap name.

Man another band from Wales the same as Budgie, created many great albums but the best was Maximum Darkness a live album starring John Cipollina from Quicksilver Messenger Service and secondly Live at the Padget Rooms Penarth.

Both albums are total rock icons.

@lordmelton - I'm a big fan of Man and that whole Welsh music scene of the 70's. I got to see them 5 or 6 times here in the San Francisco Bay Area, including that 'Live at the Keystone Berkeley' show that they released. The first time they were here was supporting Hawkwind on their '1999' tour, back in 1974.... 

@vinylvin - I don't think King Crimson are very 'forgotten'! 😄

Toad, Swiss band with members from Brainticket and lead guitarist from Hawkwind. For some real heavyosity try some Krautrock bands like Eloy, Faust, Amon Duul, Ash Ra Temple. As others have mentioned Michigan bands like MC5, Frigid Pink, Bob Seger System (2+2 total heavyosity), Stooges, SRC, Mitch Ryder and Detroit Wheels, The Underdogs, Unrelated Segments, Amboy Dukes, The Up, Sonics Rendezvous Band, Detroit (the band), I could go on and on. I got to see many of these bands around Ann Arbor when i was just a wee lad.

@larsman: You may already know, but Man's drummer Terry Williams was later in the UK super-group Rockpile, and is also heard on the late-70/80's solo albums of Rockpile members Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. After that he joined Dire Straits, and is now retired. A great drummer.

Youse guys are good, lots of goodies mentioned. a few that slipped twee the tracks:

Leafhound 'growers of mushrooms; 

Tommy Bolin 'Teaser' 

Most bands mentioned are,not metal. Maybe a,precursor in down tuned guitars.

with the Sabbath slow dirge and bass heavy sound.

   Leaf hound, possibly a steep towards that direction  

coven (lyrics are amazing, Jinx has the perfect voice for the band. I may be wrong, but if I remember history, didn’t the,first Coven LP predate the,first sabbath,album by weeks???  They have a song titled “Black Sabbath” and early sabbath was known as,”earth”  

quartz is active again!!

tysondog

PENTAGRAM  !

BANG

NAZARETH!  
 

ted nugent

 new York,dolls

thin lizzy

uriah heep

scorpions

UFO

AC/DC

JUDAS PRIEST

trapeze

stray

horse

may blitz

moxy

bow wow

many more  brain hurts

@arcticdeth This is true, but then metal really came into vogue around mid 70's. Both prog and metal morphed from these earlier bands.

@bdp24 - Indeed - I'm a big fan of Rockpile and got to see them several times during the 70's - got some cool pictures of Nick, Dave, and Billy, too! I imagine Terry got a bit larger paycheck with Dire Straits than with Man! Got some cool pictures of Man, too; wish I could copy and paste them here.... 

@richmon that Leaf Hound record was one (actually 2) of the most expensive sales on Discogs last month. I had no idea it was that in demand.

@larsman Besides Man and Budgie there was also another Welsh band called Sassafras. They toured extensively in the US and Europe but never made the Big Time. Their Riding High album is on Tidal. Man and Budgie also on Tidal.

Beckett another forgotten band which I saw live backing Slade, remember them?

Beckett only issued one album "Beckett" then disbanded after the lead singer died in a car crash. That is a hard to find album.

@lordmelton - I do remember Sassafras (did they have a Roger Dean cover?), though I don't think I'd seen or heard them; Beckett is another I recall seeing in the import section. I used to be in the record business in the 70's and would always read the English weeklies. We had a good local FM station then in San Jose that played nothing but prog and psychedelic music; shame it didn't last longer, but they're the ones who turned me on to Man and the whole Welsh scene (and the Canterbury scene as well). In fact one of their DJ's, Ron Sanchez, ended up producing 'Call Down the Moon'. 

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1264922-Sassafras

No Roger Dean album covers, are you thinking of Greenslade?

Medicine Head, they released their Dark Side of the Moon album just before Floyd and nearly caused Floyd to change the name.

@lordmelton - it might be Greenslade, but Roger did SO many album covers back then, who knows what I was thinking of? 

That Medicine Head one - wow, that's a real obscuro!! 

@larsman Yes I really like them, they released at least six albums I believe.