Who would you put on a "Mt. Rushmore" of metal?

Random Thread!!

1. Ozzy - Love him or hate him, he has been the "face" of metal since the beginning.
   
2. Tony Iommi - First real metal guitarist.
   
3. Brian May - Out of left field, I know, but Malmsteen has been called Brian the first guitarist to use classical orchestration in heavy metal. (Never thought Yngwie would give someone else credit.)
   
4. Eddie Van Halen - I'm sure I'll catch some flack for this since I'm a HUGE Van Halen fan and Eddie is half crazy, but if there's no Eddie, there's no Gilbert, Rhoads, Lynch, Vai, Satriani, Petrucci, Hammet, Buckethead, or any other shredders for that matter.
   

Your turn.

Dio, Halford, Dickenson and Alice Cooper...

Alex

Ozzy
Tony Iommi
Geezer Btler
Bill Ward

Dickinson, Hatfield, Schuldiner, Dio

Dickenson, Halford, Dio, Angus Young.

Ian Gillan, Vinnie Vincent, Dan Lilker, Steve Harris

exact33 wrote:

Dio, Halford, Dickenson and Alice Cooper...

Why?

Lurideath wrote:

Ozzy
Tony Iommi
Geezer Btler
Bill Ward

Why?

sam wrote:

Dickinson, Hatfield, Schindler, Dio

Why?

tohostudios wrote:

Dickenson, Halford, Dio, Angus Young.

Why?

DeathCult wrote:

Ian Gillan, Vinnie Vincent, Dan Lilker, Steve Harris

Why?

Sorry, but I'm studying to be an engineer, so I need to know why things are in may situations. It's my nature; I need logic to back stuff up.

My explanations:

Both Halford and Dickenson defined what metal vocals could sound like. They both reached operatic levels. Dio on the other hand, showed that metal vocals didn't have to sound like you'd been castrated. His deep baritone redefined the genre that Dickenson and Halford had established IMO.

I threw Angus in there because I think he defines what a heavy metal guitarist should be. There are a lot of guitarists who are technically more proficient than Angus but after viewing a lot of AC/DC DVDs, Angus is more charismatic than any guitar player out there IMO.

Jimmy Page
Tony Iommi
Ritchie Blackmore
Eddie Van Halen


why? Vocalists are divas....guitarists are the ones who really rock and these guys defined heavy metal guitar playing during metal's golden era.


statues made at the foot of Mt. Rushmore:
Tipton/Downing
Murray/A.Smith
A.Young
Malmsteen
Hetfield/Hammett

Jimi Hendrix
The man's guitar style revolutionized music and was an inspiration to just about every heavy band from the 60's until now.

Ulrich Roth
One of the greatest guitar players and all around musicians since Jimi Hendrix.

Ian Gillan
The human siren! One of the original heavy metal screamers

Tony Iommi
The man that invented the heavy metal riff

Dio-The Voice of Metal

Steve Harris-One of the greatest songwriters in Metal

Alice Cooper-needs no explanation

Iommi-See Ults Definition above

Dimebag: The dude had skills

King Diamond: Do I really need a reason?

Randy Rhoads: See above

Lemmy: Because he's got muttonchops and a Rickenbacker

Halford, Lemmy, Doro, & King Diamond

why? because there is none better.

mc666 wrote:

Halford, Lemmy, Doro, & King Diamond

why? because there is none better.

A Doro would look Darned good.

Halford - because he is a metal god!

Blackmore - because he is Ritchie Blackmore!

Ozzy - because he is the grandfather of metal.

Harris - because he has metal in his veins!

Very honorable mentions:

John/ Criss Oliva
Ken Downing/ Glenn Tipton
Bruce Dickinson/ (Eddie)
Phil Lynott
RJD
Dave Mustaine
James Hetfield/ KIrk Hammet
Eddie Vanhalen
Dee Snider

Dickinson
Fronts one of the greatest bands of all time, and helped pioneer the use of history and literature as heavy metal subjects
Hatfield
Helped create the all important style of thrash metal
Schuldiner
Started first true death metal band with extremely progressive leanings
Dio
It's Dio , who needs an explanation?

sam wrote:

Schindler
Started first true death metal band with extremely progressive leanings

Schuldiner. He didn't have a list.

Jimi Hendrix-influenced almost every guitartist that followed, including most all metal players either directly or indirectly, also was a superb songwriter.

Tony Iommi-created the quintessential heavy metal band and sound

Alice Cooper-creator of rock as a performance art

Bon Scott-IMO personifies Rock Star, and great vocalist and lyricist

Rob Halford-the Metal God

Tony Iommi - for inventing the Metal guitar sound

Cliff Burton - for being the Major Rager and the Four String Motherf***er

Criss Oliva - because he ruled

Kory Clarke - because I'm a fanboy.

spectrefate wrote:

sam wrote:

Schindler
Started first true death metal band with extremely progressive leanings

Schuldiner. He didn't have a list.

wait...oh...my bad

Halford
Iommi
Lemmy
Bruce Bruce

Halford's the voice, Tony's the riff master, Lemmy's the attitude (& bass) and Dickenson adds the brains.

Lemmy. Just because he is Lemmy.

Alice Cooper. The ultimate frontman.

Dave Lombardo. The man has the skills.

Pepper Keenan. Sorry, just a fanboy.

Dio
Lemmy
Halford
Eddie (he's a mascot, but still...)

You asked why? haha

Its Black Sabbath! Those 4 dudes I listed started what we know as metal and to me if anyone deserves a Mt Rushmore of Metal then it's the original members of Black Sabbath.

Since Rushmore is a post-mortem kinda trip

I go with doing a complete band thing

Cliff-bass
Criss-guitar
Cozy-drums
Bon-vocals
Why you ask ? All four made quite an impact at what they did in a somewhat unique manner

The Sabbath thing is quite valid
not a bad choice made my anyone as a matter of fact !