Poll: Most influential metal band
 

Who do you think influenced, and continues to influence, heavy metal the most?

If anyone wants other bands added let me know; these are all I could think of off the cuff...

Black Sabbath is the obvious answer. It's widely agreed upon that without their influence on the genre metal wouldn't be what we know it as today.

I voted Sabbath as well, it was unheard of to be that heavy at that time.
Almost voted Deep Purple, because they were pretty damn metallic

I think Black Sabbath can be credited as the most influential metal band ever without much dispute. Their sound was much thicker and heavier than that of Deep Purple, which helped separate them from other bands in the hard rock genre. Also, pretty much everyone agrees that Black Sabbath plays metal, while many people claim that Deep Purple is merely hard rock. As far as I've understood it, Sabbath was pretty much the only true metal band up until 1976, when Judas Priest released Sad Wings of Destiny (Rocka Rolla was more hard rock, in my opinion).

Not even a contest. It's Black Sabbath. With that said, there has always been music that is seen as more abrasive than the other kinds of music. Sabbath just took it to a different level.

It has to be Black Sabbath. The other bands are very influential, but they may not have even formed if it wasn't for Black Sabbath (with the exception of Deep Purple, who were around before Sabbath), so Black Sabbath wins by proxy.

Black Sabbath created /metal. Every band before was Proto Metal, and every band after owes a debt to Black Sabbath.

Agree with everyone so far but I'd put in a vote for Metallica just because they cast such a wide net, I'd say they'd be responsible for getting the most people interested in metal to start with, then from there people go back and discover bands like Sabbath, Maiden etc.

Where's =\ Van Halen /= ? Where's Led Zeppelin?

I am split between three for what band was the most influential. I give credit to Jimmy Page who laid the foundation for production and arrangement, Tony Iommi for riffs, and Eddie Van Halen for lead guitar.

Black Sabbath, easily. They were the first band I would call metal. I understand other bands have been WIDELY influential, IE: Metallica, but Sabbath was the first metal band and therefore have my vote by default.

I suspect that Blue Öyster Cult was very influential too. But I cannot prove it.