Norway’s Dimmu Borgir can trace its origins all the way back to the dawn of the second wave of black metal. The band formed in 1993 as contemporaries of Mayhem, Darkthrone, Thorns, and the countless other Scandanavian icons of the second wave. Initially their sound was a very traditional form of black metal, but through twenty plus years and numerous lineup changes the band has grown increasingly symphonic and experimental. Dimmu Borgir, along with Emperor and Cradle of Filth, is considered to be one of the great pioneers of the symphonic black metal genre. They have even recorded a television special performing with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

It has been nearly 5 years since the last Dimmu record landed, but the word on the street is that the band is putting the finishing touches on album number nine and it just might see the light of day yet this year. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

While we wait though, check out the official video for “The Serpentine Offering,” the opening track of the band’s masterpiece 2007 album In Sorte Diaboli, below.

Cold, forlorn landscapes make the ideal breeding grounds for black metal bands. Maybe that’s why North Dakota is rapidly becoming the U.S. black metal (USBM) scene’s answer to Scandinavia. Earlier this year we were gifted with the release of ND natives Ghost Bath’s awe-inspiring masterpiece Moonlover. Now comes another stunning slab of USBM from their fellow Dakota residents Frosthelm.

After a couple of highly acclaimed independent releases Frosthelm has taken their blackened thrash attack to legendary metal producer Matt Hyde’s new label Black Work (Alkemy Brothers) and delivered the brilliant and pummeling album The Endless Winter. Skeletonwitch singer Chance Garnett may have summed these guys up best with this quote: “A definite Euro/cold guitar tone but with an American ‘something’ added. I hear Immortal meets The Black Dahlia Murder, and that’s something I’ve not yet heard.”

One would never guess by listening to them that black metal unit Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus hail from Philadelphia. The band’s mastermind Mika Mage draws a great deal of inspiration from the folklore of his Finnish heritage. In fact, the music and artwork of Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus’ excellent new album The Child Must Die are both based on the Finnish national epic The Kalevala, a poetic book with a collection of myths and legends that occupies a prominent place in the Finnish identity, with most songs adapted directly from passages from the text.

Our Black Metal Friday selection for this week is the title track of that very record. Here below, with the official video for “The Child Must Die,” is Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus. If you like what you hear, be sure to pick up a copy of the album and help support the burgeoning U.S. Black Metal scene.

On July 7th, 2015 Swedish industrial black metal giant Diabolicum awakens from a 14-year slumber. The band’s new offering is titled Ia Pazuzu (The Abyss Of The Shadows), and is the first full length from these legendary misanthropes since 2001.

After three very solid EPs, I Am The Trireme is set to release their debut full-length album Gnosis: Never Follow the Light on June 30th. This Philadelphia outfit marries death metal, doom and black metal into a seamless and at times melodic onslaught.

You can check out the official video for the album’s first single “Thy Sombering Light” here below. If this track is indicative of the overall sound of the record, then I Am The Trireme is one of the bands to keep an eye on in 2015 and beyond.