 The UK was a cradle of the first wave of heavy metal , which was born at the end of the 1960s and flowered in the early 1970s . Of the many British bands that came to prominence during that period , Led Zeppelin , Black Sabbath and Deep Purple achieved worldwide success and critical acclaim . The success of the music genre , usually called heavy rock at the time , generated a community of UK fans with strong ties to psychedelia , hippie doctrines and biker subculture . Each of these bands was in crisis in the mid @-@ to @-@ late 1970s : Led Zeppelin were plagued by discord and personal tragedies and had drastically reduced their activities , Black Sabbath finally fired their charismatic but unreliable frontman Ozzy Osbourne , and Deep Purple disbanded . As a consequence , the whole movement lost much of its momentum and media interest , which were refocused on what British writer Malc Macmillan calls " the more fashionable or lucrative markets of the day " such as disco , glam , mod revival , new wave and electronic music . Just like progressive rock acts and other mainstream music groups of the 1970s , heavy rock bands were viewed as – in the words of journalist Garry Bushell – " lumbering dinosaurs " by a music press infatuated with punk rock and new wave . Some writers even declared the premature demise of heavy metal altogether . 
