10 Obscure 70s Bands That Should've Been Huge

Highway Robbery — For Love Or Money (1972). This San Francisco trio’s lone album sits between late‑60s psychedelia and early‑70s heavy rock, with guitarist Michael Stevens and drummer-vocalist Don Francisco hinting at styles later popularised by Montrose and Deep Purple.

If you love digging for proto‑metal and left‑field hard rock, these ten bands reward exploration: they missed commercial lift-off but left records that point straight at later scenes — doom, stoner, krautrock and punk‑cut metal all get early, convincing examples.

• Third World War — Third World War (1971) & Third World War II (1972). Terry Stamp and Jim Avery fused proto‑metal riffing with agitating left‑wing lyrics; raw, confrontational and ahead of punk’s arrival.
• Granicus — Granicus (1973); Thieves, Liars And Traitors (2010). A Cleveland power trio whose self‑titled album helped sketch the blueprint for American hard rock; later archival 1974 tapes became Thieves, Liars And Traitors.
• P2O5 — Vivat Progessio – Pereat Mundus (1978). German heaviness with a prog bent: Hammond organ and mystical grooves that point toward doom and early stoner stylings.
• Ginbae — Ginbae (1976). Yokohama’s five‑song masterclass blends Purple, Sabbath and Thin Lizzy into a compact, doom‑tinged hard rock statement with spectacular vocals and guitar work.
• McOil — All Our Hopes (1979). Ochsenhausen’s DIY album mixes krautrock repetition with a tougher metallic drive; keyboards and surging guitar balance progressiveness and primitive momentum.
• Phantom’s Divine Comedy — Phantom’s Divine Comedy Part 1 (1974). A Door‑tinged, psychedelic metal record that briefly stirred rumours about Jim Morrison; Capitol’s involvement and subsequent legal pressure buried the release.
• Survivor — All Your Pretty Moves (1979). Louisiana hard rock with Thin Lizzy harmonies and early Rainbow/Rainbow‑era heft; one album of tight, riffy power.
• Night Sun — Mournin’ (1972). A heavy prog‑metal outburst from Germany whose organ/guitar interplay anticipates thrash, doom and stoner textures long before those labels existed.
• Zarpo — Los Cuatro Jinetes Del Apocalipsis (1978). Spanish‑language heavy rock formed in 1977; the 1978 debut channels Sabbath and Judas Priest with a passionate vocal delivery from Vincent Feijóo.

This selection rescues records that mattered musically even if they didn’t chart. For collectors and fans of heavy music’s genealogy, these albums are direct lines to sounds that would later dominate entire subgenres.

Note: a similar roundup originally appeared in 2016 via LouderSound.