Heavy metal music
Critics disagree over who can be thought of as the first heavy metal band. Most credit either Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath, with American commentators tending to favour Led Zeppelin and British commentators tending to favour Black Sabbath, though many give equal credit to both. A few commentators—mainly American—argue for other groups including Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf or Blue Cheer. Deep Purple, the third band in what is sometimes considered the "unholy trinity" of heavy metal (Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple), despite being slightly older than Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, fluctuated between many rock styles until late 1969 when they took a heavy metal direction.
Heavy Metal (magazine)
The founding editors of the American edition of "Heavy Metal" were Sean Kelly and Valerie Marchant. The founding Design Director was Peter Kleinman. Kleinman was the Design Director of "National Lampoon" at the time, and he was asked to provide direction for the fledgling project in addition to his "Lampoon" duties. He created the original "Heavy Metal" logo design at the request of Len Mogel and Matty Simmons and was responsible for the launch and art direction from the first issue. The Heavy Metal Logo was Kleinman's homage to Kabel Black, one of his favorite fonts. He was experimenting with a visual pun—pushing down the characters in the word "Heavy" to emphasize the visual parody of the letters' 'weighty quality"—and in the middle of his design efforts, Simmons saw it, scooped it off of Kleinman's drafting table, and presented it to Mogel and the rest of the board. It was an instant hit and has been used as the basic logo ever since. Peter Kleinman continued to oversee the publication design and work on cover designs for the first two years, and hired Art Director and Designer John Workman, who brought to the magazine a background of experience at DC Comics and other publishers.