Washington state band Black Breath is many things to many different people. They incorporate elements from across the metal spectrum ranging from thrash to hardcore to doom and several points in between. But the one common thread running through all of their work is the strong anti-Christian aesthetic of black metal. There may be no better example of the convergence of all of these elements than the track “Black Sin (Spit On The Cross)” from their second full length album, 2012’s Sentenced To Life. Check it out here below.

After waiting for drummer Jamie Bynum to recover from multiple fractures to his leg from being hit by a car in early 2014, Black Breath are currently hard at work on their third album. It is due later this year via powerhouse metal label Southern Lord. Keep an eye out here for details on the album as they emerge.

North Dakota’s Ghost Bath is one of the most exciting bands to emerge from the New Wave of U.S. Black Metal (NWOUSBM). They are also one of the most mysterious; The band initially presented themselves as a Chinese band in advance of their awe-inspiring debut album Funeral. No one is quite sure why they did this, but everyone was talking about it so I guess there’s that. Anyway, publicity stunts aside, Ghost Bath is highly secretive and there are no photos of the members to be found anywhere. They are a band that chooses to let the music speak for itself and speak it does. In volumes.

Quorthon (a.k.a. Tomas Forsberg) was just 17 when he convinced his father, who owned a Swedish record label, to include two songs from his band Bathory on a heavy metal compilation that the label was putting together. In doing so, the elder Forsberg unleashed upon the world one of the first examples of the extreme music that would come to be known as black metal.

Quorthon would eventually grow tired of the imagery and aesthetics of the genre that he helped create (not to mention the creepy, overzealous fans mailing him dead animal parts). He would reinvent himself and Bathory, in the process becoming the father of yet another sub-genre, Viking Metal.

The third Bathory record, 1987’s Under the Sign of the Black Mark, would be Quorthon’s last foray into straight black metal. The album along with its two predecessors stand to this day as the template for all black metal that has followed. Here, with the second track of that record is Bathory performing “Massacre.”

Formed in 1997, Italian band Graveworm were signed to a record deal off of the strength of their live performances before they had ever even recorded a demo. Their sound is epic, synth-laden symphonic black metal in the vein of Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth. Sarah Jezebel Deva from Cradle of Filth even appeared as a guest vocalist on the track “Awake, Thy Angels of Sorrow” from the band’s 1998 EP Underneath the Crescent Moon. Graveworm has released eight studio albums to date and continue to grow their following through extensive touring and festival appearances.

This week’s Black Metal Friday spotlights the official video for Graveworm’s track “I, The Machine” from their 2005 album (N)Utopia.

New Orleans’ blackened thrash band Goatwhore arose from the ashes of two of that city’s most legendary bands. When Acid Bath broke up, guitarist Sammy Duet hooked up with former Soilent Green singer Ben Falgoust, guitarist Ben Stout, bassist Patrick Bruders, and drummer Zak Nolan. They took their moniker from an Aleister Crowley ritual involving goat semen (don’t ask!). Over the course of the last 18 years, Goatwhore has delivered 6 albums of the most brutal black thrash ever conceived. The band’s unrelenting assault both live and on record has garnered them a rabid following that continues to grow.

Here, with the opening track of their fourth album, 2009’s Carving Out the Eyes of God, is Goatwhore with their anthem “Apocalyptic Havoc.”