A good point sir, indeed it was! My take is that at the time when Led Zep and Deep Purple were termed metal the genre hadn't finished forming yet. By the time it did (the early 80s) it was a bit more apparent that there was a distinction between their sound and that of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, etc.

So personally I see Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple as influential to heavy metal music, with a role in it's emergance and important to a discussion of it's early days, but not part of the genre itself.

It's not something I'd get vehement about though, all "They're not metal, dammit!!!" ;)

p.s. thanks for the sensible comment.

thx for liking my review to "Everyone is Everybody Else" :D

Thanks for the comment. I've been meaning to change my ordering about for a while. Off The Ground would probably be in my top 10 now, and Good Evening would be added.