1982 Year in Metal

This page isn’t so much about the year in metal in 1982 but more a personal story on the year that I really discovered Heavy Metal music and making this the most important year in my life. I am now in my 50’s and well you can do the math but last year was my 40th year of really listening to Metal music.

In 1982 I was 15 years old. Living on a farm in Ontario, Canada. 3 or 4 tv channels on tv. No internet of course. I had never even heard of the term Heavy Metal. Living in Canada did hear a lot of Canadian bands on the radio and I always did prefer the hard rocking bands like April Wine, Triumph, Streetheart and others so I was leaning towards away from the top 40 hits on the radio. And I would of course hear Zeppelin, ACDC, Deep Purple, and Aerosmith and other hard rocking bands which led me to start buying rock magazines like Hit Parader and Circus and others.

Then near the end of September as my birthday approached I was looking through a Circus magazine. And saw a feature on this British band called Iron Maiden and the story said they were influenced by Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and there was a mention of this monster mascot (Eddie) that would appear on stage and this all just sounded so cool to this 15 year old country boy. So my brother needed to buy me a birthday gift so I said I want this album Iron Maiden—The Number of the Beast.

So on September 30th, 1982 I got my hands on the vinyl and the awesome cover artwork and I put the vinyl on my turntable and put that needle down and Invaders started blaring out my speaker and instantly my life had changed forever!!

First chance I got I bought more magazines and read all about Iron Maiden and other bands. I went to the record store about bought the 1st 2 Iron Maiden albums and their live EP “Maiden Japan”. And then it was just discovering all the metal I could. Me and some friends would pay $5 to take a bus 2 hours from where we lived to go to Toronto so we could go to the big record stores like A&A Records, Sam The Record Man and it would be a like metal kid in a metal candy store with all these metal albums available. Of course you couldn’t listen to anything so if I saw scary imagery or guys with long hair on the backs of the albums I was like “this looks like its going to sound awesome” and I would buy it!! How times have changed.

And this was just the beginning as the next year the Metallica, Slayers and Exodus’s of the world began and thrash metal movement would start. And it has just continued year after year but deep down my metal heart was born in 1982.

Metal facts 1982.

• Bruce Dickinson joins Iron Maiden and they release THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST
• Fast Eddie Clarke leaves Motorhead
• The great Rhandy Rhoads dies in a airplane crash on March 19th
• Ace Frehley leaves Kiss and is replaced by Vinnie Vincent
• Ian Gillan replaces Ronnie James Dio in Black Sabbath as of course Dio starts his solo band
• Black Sabbath with Dio on vocals release their live album LIVE EVIL. Former Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne releases a live album titled SPEAK OF THE DEVIL

Top 5 Canadian Hard Rock Albums of 1982

Since I am Canadian and this music lead me into Heavy Metal here are my Top 5 Canadian Hard Rock albums of 1982

5. Lee Aaron—The Lee Aaron Project (new album released in 2023)
4. Coney Hatch—Coney Hatch
3. April Wine—Power Play
2. Triumph—Never Surrender
1. Headpins—Turn it Loud

---

MY TOP 10 Metal Albums of 1982. (can you guess which one is number 1???) Actually this is my top 11 list because 11 is louder then 10!!

****written by Blake Mossey***