Black Fans of Hard Rock! Fans of Black Hard Rock!

[ggroy]

One of Metallica's original guitarists was black. His name is Lloyd Grant.

Grant played on the demo version of "Hit the Lights", which ended up on the early pressings of the Metal Massacre compilation.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uyj8dcppJc"]YouTube - Lars Ulrich Talks W/ Lloyd Grant[/ame]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

ggroy, thank you for telling me something I did not know! Learning something means I have not wasted my day.

 

[grufflehead]

I never cared much for Living Colour.

Man, why you want to give me that funny vibe?


EDIT: And if you want a real obscurity, try these guys:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jXGP_5R_GQ"]YouTube- Scrap Iron Scientists - Dreadlock Criminal[/ame]

Don't know if they even recorded an album (there's a 3 song EP on Amazon), and their myspace page labels them as hardcore - I've generally steered clear of hardcore in the past, but if it's like this I may have to remedy that...

 

[ggroy]

Went through my old record/cassette collection earlier. Found a few other metal bands with black musicians.

- Black Death

Encyclopaedia Metallum - Black Death (USA)

- Znowhite / Cyclone Temple

Encyclopaedia Metallum - Znöwhite

Encyclopaedia Metallum - Cyclone Temple

- Zoetrope

Encyclopaedia Metallum - Zoetrope

 

[ggroy]

Black Death sounded like Motorhead, early thrash metal style.

http://www.myspace.com/blackdeathcleveland

 

[tecnowraith]

Okay, are we talking a all black memeber bands or bands with 1 or 2 members that are? Cause there will be different in rarity if so. If it was a 1 or 2 members that are black than you can throw in Sevendust to that list.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There are actually very few all black rock bands, as was pointed out in the documentary that spawned this thread.

Black rockers are considerably more common, but still a relative rarity...and up until fairly recently in rock history, they tended not to get attention from the media or radio. I happen to have a LOT of the original Headbanger's Ball, for instance, and but for Living Colour or Bad Brains, you hardly saw a black face on the show.

Even though they were far from being the first black rock band, Living Colour is essentially the band that broke that trend. Up until their hit single, "Cult of Personality" you'd be hard pressed to find a predominantly black or black-fronted band that cracked the top 100 in the mainstream charts (as opposed to a genre chart- blues, jazz, etc.) after the 1950's.

 

[ggroy]

you'd be hard pressed to find a predominantly black or black-fronted band that cracked the top 100 in the mainstream charts (as opposed to a genre chart- blues, jazz, etc.) after the 1950's.

How about Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy?

"The Boys Are Back in Town" reached the top 10 in 1976.

The Boys Are Back in Town - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8UoUXmKH_A"]YouTube- Thin Lizzy - 'The Boys Are Back In Town' - Live[/ame]

 

[ggroy]

The vocalist of the Brazilian death metal band Sepultura is black.

Derrick Green - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

How about Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy?

"The Boys Are Back in Town" reached the top 10 in 1976.

Yep...and that's going to be about the extent of it.

You'll see some crossover hits from Parliament/Funkadelic, James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone and other black artists, but those are all Funk, R&B, Soul and even the odd Country performer (like Charlie Pride). Black rockers are almost invisible.

Electric Purgatory listed several bands that were black or black-fronted rock bands in the post-Motown era- other than Thin Lizzy, you probably wouldn't have heard of any of them until you hit the 1990s. I don't recall a chart-maker among them, at this point.