Magic Circle may have been born in the wrong decade. The young Massachusetts band sound like they belong to the early ’80s New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Their epic arrangements, clean soaring vocals, and driving riffage calls to mind a cross between Iron Maiden, Diamond Head, and Dio era Sabbath.

Continue below for a taste of the band in the form of the epic fifth track off their second full-length album Journey Blind, titled “Ghosts of the Southern Front.”

I quite literally just discovered these guys from Greg Majewski’s year-end best of list over at Invisible Oranges. He named Journey Blind his album of the year and heaped such praise on it that I just had to give it a spin. After listening to little else for the past several days I can tell you that more than any other band I have ever featured in this column, this record reminds me of the music that I discovered from the Massive Metal for the Masses show as a kid (as described in detail in the paragraph that always runs at the end of my Massive Metal Monday Columns).

Had I known about this record earlier, I have no doubt that it might have come in as high as second on my “Best Metal Albums of 2015” list. I can’t go back and revise that now, but I can implore you to listen to this band. If you love old school metal, DO NOT miss these guys!

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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.