For this week’s edition of Black Metal Friday we examine the force of nature that is 1349.

Watch the video for “When I Was Flesh” here below.

The band hails from Oslo, Norway and their name is a reference to the year that the black plague reached Norway. Led by frontman Ravn and drummer Frost (who is also a member of Satyricon), the band present a challenging aural assault that is only intensified by their electrifying live performances. See for yourself in the official video for “When I Was Flesh,” the fifth track from the band’s fifth album, 2010’s Demonoir.

This week we look at the first black metal band to ever sign with a major record label (EMI). Hailing from Oslo, Norway, Satyricon formed in 1991. Since 1993, Satyr (vocals) and Frost (drums) have been the band’s only permanent members. Their first three albums were very true to the core formula of black metal, but starting with their fourth album, Satyricon started to incorporate more traditional hard rock elements. As a result, the band has become one of the biggest international success stories to emerge from the Norwegian black metal scene.

“The Pentagram Burns” is the third track of their sixth album Now, Diabolical released in 2006. Check it out here below.

Hailing from Brazil, Sarcafago was one of the first wave of black metal bands. Led by original Sepultura singer Wagner “Antichrist” Lamounier, they were perhaps the first black metal band in the Americas. The band built on inspiration from early European black metal pioneers such as Venom and Bathory. Their debut album, INRI, is hailed as a defining moment in the genre. The cover art for the record helped to establish the visual aesthetics of the genre, including the use of corpse-paint, leather jackets, and bullet belts. The band existed from 1985-2000 and reunion rumors persist, though Lamounier remains adamant that the band is over for good.

From their second studio album, The Laws of Scourge (1991), here is “Screeches from the Silence.”

Last week we examined the origin of the term black metal via Venom’s second album, which gave the genre its name. In this week’s edition of Black Metal Friday we examine what many consider to be the first true example of the black metal sound and aesthetic. Listen to the sample below.

Bathory was a Swedish band founded by 17-year-old singer and guitarist, Thomas Forsberg aka Quorthon in 1983. The band was named after notorious Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory who was rumored to have tortured and killed hundreds of girls and bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth. Venom had also name checked her with the song “Countess Bathory.”

Here below with the third track from their self-titled debut album is Bathory, performing the track “Reaper.”

Last week I gave you the documentary Black Metal Satanica as a primer for the genre. For this weeks installment of Black Metal Friday, we examine the origin of the genre’s name. Here with the title track of their second album, Black Metal, is the English band Venom.

While technically more on the punk/metal side of the spectrum, this album and song contain the basic DNA of what would morph into the genre of black metal. Frenetic speed, the vocal stylings of singer Cronos and the imagery glorifying Satan were all to be adopted along with the phrase “black metal” by the next wave of extreme bands to follow. The first true example of the black metal sound would surface the following year with Bathory’s first album, which we will explore next week. Until then, horns up and enjoy the song that spawned a genre.