Black Tongue is a British band that plays an ultra heavy type of metal known as doom-core. Utilizing extremely low tunings, demonic vocals, and dirge-like tempos, this quartet have staked their claim as one of the brightest rising stars in the metal underground. But their ascent nearly came to a screeching halt back in February when lead singer Alex Teven fell from the band’s moving tour bus while on tour in Poland. The drunken frontman mistook the exit door for the bus’s toilet door and fell onto the roadway. His bandmates found him lying in a ditch with head and facial injuries.

Fortunately, Tevan’s injuries were not life threatening and the self-proclaimed “Hull Hate Crew” rebounded by September when they released their crushing new album, The Unconquerable Dark. This week’s Massive Metal Monday track is the opening salvo of the album and is entitled “Plague Worship.” Crank it up, but not too loud… this stuff will blow your speakers!

When I was growing up in rural Indiana in the early ’80s, 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, just across the state line in Oxford, Ohio (home of Miami University of 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 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 metal heads.