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.
List of Christian metal artists
Christian metal, which is also known as white metal or heavenly metal, is heavy metal music with a Christian message. Christian metal is regarded more of a concept rather than a genre since it has no specific musical characteristics. It emerged in the late 1970s as a means of evangelization to the wider heavy metal music scene and was pioneered by American bands Resurrection Band and Barnabas, Swedish band Jerusalem and Canadian band Daniel Band. Los Angeles' Stryper achieved wide success in the 1980s. In the mid to late 1980s, extreme metal genres were popularized by bands such as Vengeance Rising, Deliverance, Believer and Tourniquet. In the early 1990, the Australian death metal band Mortification rose to prominence within its country's underground metal scene. At the turn of the 21st century, P.O.D., with two platinum-selling albums, achieved a mainstream commercial success rivaling that of Stryper. The metalcore groups Underoath, Demon Hunter, As I Lay Dying and Norma Jean (dubbed by the magazine "Revolver" as "The Holy Alliance") also brought some mainstream attention to the movement in the first decade of the 2000s, achieving ranks in the "Billboard" 200.