For me, it's a tie between Iommi and Blackmore.
Well, to be honest, I'll cast my vote on Ritchie,
mainly because he's a better leadplayer than Iommi(Highway Star anyone? )
but if it were about riffs, nobody can touch Iommi
I have to go with Iommi because they were the first to ever play dark metalish music as Page played rock and blues,and Blackmore was more like Page with the rock/blues style.
I love Iommi's riffs I only wish we had had a chance to hear Randy play more Sabbath tracks.
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RhoadsOliva wrote:Blackmore wasn't Metal though.. Neither was Page... But id go with Iommi.
Cause every riff and solo he busted out I loved no matter how simple!
Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin paved the way for metal as wee know it. Even Sabbath was basically a loud blues band when they started. The first real metal band in the modern sense ot the term was probably Judas Priest (who started in '73), Black Sabbath gave then the blueprint and they perfected it and showed the others how to get 'er done!
I picked Iommi out of these three, because I really like his soloing, he was different in that he was a lot more jazzy than the others. I love Blackmore and Page as songwriters, but not so much as soloists.
Jimi Hendrix should have been in this poll, but either way, I still vote for Tony. Black Sabbath were nothing but metal, BTW. Song after song, track after track...even the lighter stuff had a dark, or epic feel to it. So Black Sabbath were the first true metal band.