genetically speaking it has Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple's DNA all over it.
Not really. The first Led Zeppelin album came out in 1969 (as did Led Zeppelin II - they didn't fuck around in those days), and the first Black Sabbath album in 1970 (as did
Paranoid - they were no slackers either), but they are most definitely not the same kinds of beasts. (On a somewhat related note, the first two Stooges records came out in 1969 and 1970, and when you put them in this context you can see how tremendously fucking weird and different they were from the rest of the "rock" being made.)
Dazed and Confused wouldn't have sounded out of place on either of those first two Black Sabbath albums, but the rest of the Zeppelin stuff is, as
Purple Stickpin suggests, basically
really loud blues. I don't see much parallel between early Sabbath and Zeppelin either in their sound or intention (that perfect Satan worshiping soundtrack tune,
Dazed and Confused, aside).
I can speak somewhat to Sabbath's "intention" because I saw them when I was 15 years old and they scared the shit out of me. And I'm pretty sure that's exactly what they were trying to do. It was not a "party" atmosphere. It was
not rock and roll. I also saw Led Zeppelin in the mid-70s, and the impression I got from them is that they just wanted to get really drunk and (try to) fuck everyone's sisters (probably all at the same time in the same room). It was pure
rock and roll, as it should probably be defined in the dictionary.
Deep Purple always occupied a different space for me. I wouldn't compare them to either of those bands. But really, I didn't even know who Deep Purple was until
Machine Head, and I wasn't exactly an
aficionado of any of those bands. These are just my memories of the days when they were relevant and putting out "new" music. At the time I was probably listening more to Alice Cooper records.
I abandoned it all shortly after I found it anyway, when I was still a teenager and that first Ramones record came out and immediately made almost everything that came before it look pompous and overblown.
Gah, I never intend to type these fucking screeds, but I always end up here.