[gravitas]

Well, we all know that Britain invented Heavy Metal, right? Guys like Sabbath and Zeppelin come to mind. There were plenty of heavy blues rock guys coming out of England in the late 60's and 70's. But just before 1980, john Bonham died. Ozzy left Sabbath. Keef was in jail. King Crimson had disbanded, for chrissakes. So, with this in mind, the punk community stepped up and gleefully fornicated all over the music charts. Right now, we think of punk as the backlash to progressive rock and technical cock-rockers like Thin Lizzy or UFO. Well, the New Wave of British Metal was the backlash to punk.

Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Motörhead, Judas Priest, and Diamond Head were all members of the movement. They shared a lot of punk's aesthetic, but were more concerned with the quality of the music than the attitude. For the most part, better vocals than most punk bands (but we can forgive ol' Lemmy, right?) Some of them (specifically Iron Maiden and Rainbow) incorporated classical stuff into their music, giving it a more progressive-tinged kind of bite. Lyrics were occasionally focused on fantastical themes (see "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" or a lot of stuff by Saxon).

You probably knew all these bands anyway, but just didn't know the history behind them. Anyway, so that's the Now Old New Wave of British Metal.