The article explores the origins of the term "heavy metal" in music, tracing it back to Steppenwolf's 1968 hit "Born to Be Wild" rather than the genre's later pioneers like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Though those bands came to define the sound, the phrase itself was first voiced through a lyric referencing "heavy metal thunder" in the song's second verse, giving the term its musical meaning years before the genre fully took shape.

At the time, "Born to Be Wild" was classed as hard rock or, at most, proto-metal, and Steppenwolf were simply describing the roar of motorcycle engines rather than coining a genre label. The piece notes that the term's broader roots stretch back further still, to figures such as writer William S Burroughs and the band Vanilla Fudge, suggesting Steppenwolf were the first to give the phrase sonic form rather than inventing the concept outright.