Metallica s Influences Just a thought but it seems to me that listing Black Sabbath Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin as the band s primary influences is misleading While those bands certainly did influence Metallica I think it d be more useful to substitute the bands Metallica by their own admission imitated According to the Garage Inc booklet Metallica initially set out to be a combination of Diamond Head and Motorhead Besides the above quote this influence in immediately apparent to a greater degree than the influence of the three bands currently listed I feel that this change will make that particular section more accurate Thoughts