Savatage emerged from the Tampa, Florida scene in the early 1980s and helped usher in a new brand of progressive power metal. Led by virtuoso guitarist Criss Oliva and his brother, the powerhouse operatic vocalist Jon Oliva, Savatage would climb all the way to the top of the metal world with one classic album after another. The pinnacle of their success came with their 1987 album Hall of the Mountain King, which featured two hit singles that received heavy airplay on MTV: “Hall of the Mountain King” and “24 Hours Ago.”

Watch the video for the album’s title track here below.

Always the most literate of the 1980s-era metal bands, British metal masters Iron Maiden often tapped historical events and the great works of literature for subject matter when writing songs. For their 1984 opus Powerslave, the band looked to 18th century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic work “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and penned a 14-minute song of the same name. The song condenses the tale down, but hits on most of the high points of the story. Singer Bruce Dickinson sums it up best in his usual intro to the song when they perform it live: “This is what NOT to do if a bird shits on you.”

Check out Iron Maiden performing “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” live in concert here below.

Since we looked at Helix for this week’s Massive Metal Monday, I thought we would keep with the Canadian theme for Thrashback Thursday.

Exciter was one of the very first speed metal bands in the world and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the thrash genre. Formed in 1978 in Ottawa, Canada, the band has endured for over 35 years with only a small, but very rabid cult following.

Listen to Exciter here below.

Long Live the Loud was the third album by Exciter and was released in 1985. Here with “Beyond the Gates of Doom,” the fifth track from that classic album, are the fathers of Canadian thrash, Exciter.