Tribulation is a blackened death metal band from Arvika, Sweden. They have released two great records thus far and have just announced their signing with Century Media Records for a worldwide deal. I personally discovered these guys when they opened for Watain and In Solitude on their first American tour late last year and can vouch for the fact that they are a phenomenal live act. I’ve been addicted to their second album, Formulas of Death, ever since. The band is preparing to enter the studio in December to begin work on their third full-length album and if it’s anywhere near as good as the last two, with the strength of Century Media behind them, they should soon be a household name in metal circles.

Here live from Party San in 2010 is Tribulation with a song from their first album, The Horror, entitled “Graveyard Ghouls.”

Immortal come from (where else?) the hotbed of black metal, Bergen, Norway, and is one of the most iconic and polarizing bands in the genre. They are revered by many as one of the first bands to emerge in the second wave of black metal and reviled by others who see them as “the KISS of black metal,” perhaps due to the fact that the band has proven to be one of the most commercially successful black metal outfits ever and can often be seen playing the main stages of major European festivals.

Love them or hate them, there is no denying that black metal as we know it today might be a very different animal if not for the contributions of Immortal. Here, from their iconic 1995 album Battles In The North are Immortal with the official video for the song “Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark).”

The Norwegian word “umenneske” translates to brute, animal, beast, monster devil, or demon, all of which are fairly accurate analogies for the style of black metal offered up by Bergen-based band Taake. The band’s name itself is the Norwegian word for fog.

Formed in 1993 by leader and vocalist Hoest, Taake has been purveying their over-the-top brand of black metal in the most nihilistic fashion possible for over two decades. The band is an electric live act and have a penchant for doing anything they can to piss off whatever establishment they find themselves surrounded by. In 2007, they were thrown out of Germany after Hoest appeared onstage in Essen with a swastika painted on his chest, an act that is strictly forbidden by German law. The singer explained that the act was meant not as any sort of political or racially motivated act, but as a statement against censorship.

Taake has issued 6 studio albums to date and numerous demos and EPs. From their fourth studio album, 2008’s eponymous Taake, here they are with the official video for the song “Umenneske.”

Emerging from Norway’s very tight black metal community in the early 1990s, Mysticum has proven to be one of the most influential and storied bands that the scene has ever produced. Originally signed to Mayhem guitarist Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions label, the band began work on their debut album In the Streams of Inferno. However, before the record could see the light of day, Euronymous would be murdered by Varg Vikernes. Mysticum would eventually find another label to release the album in 1996. It’s cold, raw, drum machine driven sound added an industrial element to the genre that would go on to have a profound influence on the legion of bands that would follow.

When serendipity drops Halloween on a Black Metal Friday in your lap, how can you help but think of the song “Halloween”?

King Diamond, both with Mercyful Fate and his own eponymous solo band, helped form both the black metal and thrash genres. Kim Bendix Petersen, the man behind the King Diamond persona, was one of the first true Satanists in heavy metal. Many acts had previously used occult imagery and satanism in a somewhat cartoonish fashion, but the King walked the walk and talked the talk. He has been very open about being a devout follower of Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan. All of this lent a certain authenticity to King Diamond’s macabre, occult-fueled imagery and stage show — a show that I have the great fortune of witnessing tonight at The Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Look for my coverage of that event right here on Geeks of Doom.

Meanwhile, in the spirit of the day, here is King Diamond from his first solo album, 1986’s Fatal Portrait with the track “Halloween.”