Well, now that I have moved my other weekly columns, Thrashback Thursday and Black Metal Friday, over here to GoD, there’s only one left to introduce to you guys and it is called Massive Metal Monday!

When I was growing up in rural Indiana in the early 80’s, there was very limited access to heavy music. These were the days before MTV blew up with the whole hair metal, Headbangers Ball phenomenon. But on Sunday nights, there was a two-hour radio show that came from WOXY, the radio station of Miami University of Ohio, just across the state line in Oxford, Ohio. It was called Massive Metal for the Masses and I would wait all week for it to air. It was through this show that I was introduced to bands like Venom, Bathory, WASP, Michael Schenker Group, Slayer, and countless others. This Monday weekly column is my tip of the hat to that show. I call it Massive Metal Monday. Every week, I will pay tribute to defining moments by the artists that laid the groundwork for heavy metal to become the worldwide cultural bond for all of us metalheads.

So without further ado, I give you the mighty Iron Maiden with the first single from their fourth studio album Piece of Mind. From 1983, this is “Flight of Icarus.” The lyrics are based on the legend of Icarus from Greek mythology. This is just one of the reasons that I fell in love with metal in the first place; my 12-year-old brain was actually absorbing new things! Imagine!

Iron Maiden “Flight of Icarus”