10 Greatest Hard Rock Guitarists Of The '70s

As the '70s really started to come into its own, the concept of metal was still a fresh idea in everyone's mind. Though most of the first metal bands like Black Sabbath never really self-identified under the genre tag, there were little bits of darkness uniting all of these bands together. Blue Oyster Cult were not metal....but they weren't that far removed from it either.

Forming initially as an American answer to Sabbath, the real strength of BOC came from the guitar of Buck Dharma. From the earliest incarnations of the band, Dharma's touch behind his six-string showed that he really knew how to turn out a powerful riff when he wanted to, whether it be the juggernaut Godzilla or the swirling arpeggio that comes from Don't Fear the Reaper. That's not to say he couldn't light up the fretboard either, with the solo in Reaper being one of the most horrifying pieces ever to be put in a rock song at the time.

Above all else, the dark themes that were laced throughout Dharma's writing and playing style set the groundwork for plenty of goth rock coming down the line. So next time you sing the praises of acts like AFI or Alkaline Trio for their hard-edged take on goth, you might also owe Buck Dharma a 'thank you' as well.