Heathen Family Tree
Metal Family Tree
This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.
We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.
Heathen are a relatively underground thrash band. Guitarist Lee Altus (who has also been in Exodus since 2005) has been the heart of the Heathen since the beginning with long time vocalist David White joining soon after the beginning. Doug Piercy was on second guitar on the first two albums which is a role now filled by Kragen Lum since 2007. There have been several bass players, none being with the band for a long period. Drummers have change several times as well.
The Beatles are one of the most notable bands in history for being the band that kicked off a new generation of rock music. David and Doug named them as an influence.
The Rolling Stones were one of the most important bands out of the 60’s rock bands. Doug named them as an influence and David said they were one of the bands he listened to as a kid.
Th who were one of the harder bands to come out of the 60’s. Doug named them as an influence.
Jimi Hendrix was a revolutionary guitar player. Doug named him as an influence.
Deep Purple’s classic line up in the 70’s has been hugely influential to so many bands. Lee named them as an influence and said Burn is one of his favorite albums. David and Doug also named Deep Purple as an influence.
Humble Pie were a hard blues rock band. Doug named them as an influence.
Led Zeppelin are one of the most important and influential bands in history. Doug named them as an influence
The fathers of Heavy Metal, Black Sabbath. Lee and Doug named them as an influence.
ABBA were a hugely popular pop band. Lee says he loves ABBA.
Thin Lizzy were a rock / hard rock band known for their guitar harmonies. Lee named them as an influence on the whole Bay Area scene. He named Thunder and Lightning and Black Rose as favorite albums. Doug also named Thin Lizzy as an influence.
UFO were a very influential band when Michael Schenker was on guitar. David named them as an influence.
Sweet were a hard rock / glam band. Lee named them as an influence.
Scorpions have balanced heavy metal and hard rock over the years putting out plenty of both. Lee named them as one of the bands he grew up listening. He says he really loves the first four albums and would maybe pick Taken By Force as his favorite.
Queen was a big influence on many bands, with Freddy Mercury considered one of the greatest vocalists. David named them as an influence.
Aerosmith were one of the most important American hard rock bands. Doug named them as an influence.
With Ritchie Blackmore and Dio, Rainbow was a legendary band. Lee named them as an influence and he named Rainbow Rising as one of his favorite albums.
The metal gods, Judas Priest are perhaps the most quintessential heavy metal band. Lee and David named them as an influence.
Gary Moore was a influential blues player. Doug named him as an influence.
Motorhead are hard rock / heavy metal legends. Lee named them as an influence.
Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola is an influential jazz guitarist. Doug named him as an influence.
The Pat Travers Bands was a hard blues rock band. Doug named Pat as an influence.
Van Halen were a one of those bands who impacted the entire musical world when they came out. Doug named them as an influence.
Iron Maiden are one of the most influential metal bands and came out of the NWOBHM movement. Lee said they were a band he grew up listening to and named Killers as one of his favorite albums.
Tygers of Pan Tang were another NWOBHM band. Lee named them as an influence.
Ozzy has been blessed to have some amazing guitar players in his band. Kragen named old Ozzy stuff as an influence with Randy Rhoads.
The Exploited were a hardcore punk / crossover band. Lee named them as one of the punk bands that he listened to.
CBH or Charged GBH were a hardcore punk band. Lee named them as a punk band he listened to.
The earliest of the Bay area bands, Exodus did a lot for what wold be come thrash metal. Lee said he use to play along to early Exodus demo. He named Bonded by Blood as a favorite thrash album.. Kragen was also influenced by Exodus. (Both Lee and Kragen have played in Exodus in recent years.)
The fathers of thrash, Metallica really cemented what thrash was. Lee used to play a long to early Metallica demos and named Kill ‘em All as a favorite thrash album. Kragen also names Metallica as an influence. They both name James as the guy all the thrash players look to for rhythm.
Ratt were a heavy / glam metal band. Kragen named Warren DeMartini as an influence.
In Flames are one of the pioneers of melodic death metal. Lee is a big fan.
Lee said his goal with Heathen was to combing the riffing of Exodus and Metallica with the vocals of Iron Maiden, and harmonies of Thin LIzzy and Iron Maiden.
Lee didn’t directly name the following as influences, but named Slayer’s Reign in Blood, Venom’s Black Metal and Destruction’s Infernal Overkill as some of the best thrash albums (along with already mentioned Metallica and Exodus). In a different interview instead of Black Metal he names Death Angle’s Ultra-Violence.
Lee said he likes some punk for it’s speed. He also says he likes industrial metal. He said he really liked In Flames and they was the first band he heard since the early days of thrash that he thought was doing something really new. He also mentions liking Children of Bodom. He talks about early death metal bands like Obituary being good, but said a lot of the bands after were just copies.
David says he was influenced by NWOBHM but doesn’t name any bands. He also says he listened to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Monkees as a kid. He said he always wanted to be a drummer and never really considered being a singer till asked to join Blind Illusion.
Kragen talks about still practicing and working on his skills by trying to get better and a more classical style as well as working on Jeff Loomis stuff.
Jim Sanguinetti, guitarist in the early days, did not play on any albums but has at least one co-writing credit on the second album.
Bassist Mike Jazstremski and drummer Carl Sacco played on the first album, but I’m uncertain if they contributed to writing. I’m uncertain of writing credits for this album.
Darren Minter was the drummer for the second album, but no writing is credited to him.
Jon Torres was bassist on The Evolution of Chaos and wrote the music for “Bloodkult", but this is his only credit writing contribution.
Sources:
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/21558-a-lesson-in-violence-exodus-gary-holt-lee-altus?page=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCLKrv472-k
https://www.metal-rules.com/2013/07/02/lee-altus-exodus-and-heathen/
https://www.metal-rules.com/2020/03/13/heathen-david-white/
https://www.therockpit.net/2020/interview-david-white-heathen/
http://www.old.mirgilus.com/interviews/heathen.html
http://users.telenet.be/denofiniquitybe/intanvilchorus'.htm
https://www.wattpad.com/865252260-interviews-kragen-lum-live-guitarist-of-exodus
