Yeah the first one is definitely a solid blues progression, the second sounds like toss into the rock bin. It's like something Sabbath would have done. Especially if the bIIImin chord is voiced as a minor/major seventh chord. Man that's a aggresive sounding chord.

Chris, which whole tone scale are you talking about? Cause the whole tone scale (w,w,w,w,w,w) I am thinking of is the same scale if you were to start on the 9th or b7th of a chord.