You know it’s going to be a good week whenever there is a new Darkthrone track. When said track is a return to form that harkens back to the band’s ’90s heyday, you know it’s going to be a great week. And that is where today finds us. The Norwegian gods of black metal have gifted us with the first single from their upcoming sixteenth studio album Arctic Thunder, which will be released on October 14, 2016 via Peaceville Records. After nearly a dozen year diversion, Darktrhone have decided to cast off the black-n-roll and crust punk diversions and get back down to their black metal roots.

February 26, 2016 marked the 24th anniversary of Darkthrone‘s landmark second album A Blaze In The Northern Sky. It is a release that many see as a pivotal moment in the beginning of black metal’s second wave.

Unfortunately, the band’s label Peaceville Records and the band’s bass player did not see it that way at the time. The album marked a sudden stylistic shift to black metal with only traces of the death metal that the band had been previously known for. Bassist Dag Nilsen was not happy with the musical direction the band was taking and quit the band over it. He did agree to record the bass parts for the record though and is credited as a guest musician. The label had a less understanding reaction to the unannounced musical shift. Though the album was recorded early in 1991 it would not see the light of day until 1992 after a prolonged dispute over the mix, which Peaceville wanted to “clean up.” The lo-fi sound of the album would eventually stand and the rest is history.

This week’s Black Metal Friday band needs no introduction. Norwegian legends Darkthrone are amongst a very small handful of bands that kick started the second wave of black metal in the early ’90s. Their “unholy trinity” of albums, A Blaze in the Northern Sky,Under a Funeral Moon and Transilvanian Hunger as well as their fiercely DIY ethic are widely considered to be the template for most of the black metal that followed.

The duo behind Darkthrone, Fenriz and Nocturno Culto have steered away from black metal in recent years in favor of a more crust punk approach but they will always be held in the highest reverence for their contributions to the dark genre. Here, from A Blaze in the Northern Sky, is Darkthrone with the classic anthem “In the Shadow of the Horns.” Crank it up and throw some horns of your own in honor of the masters, Darkthrone.

Until The Light Takes Us
DVD | 2-Disc DVD | Blu-Ray
Directed by Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell
Starring Gylve “Fenriz” Nagell, Varg Vikernes, Jan Axel “Hellhammer” Blomberg, Kjetil “Frost” Haraldstad
Factory 25
Released: October 19, 2010

It was the early 1990s, and for metalheads, change was in the air. “Alternative” was the buzz word being bandied about by music marketing, Grunge had taken over the charts, new bands and new sounds were coming… but among metal fans there was a desire to search and find something new and something different — and many were looking for more extreme and brutal movements.

Enter the Norwegian Black Metal movement. A lot of metal fans were first introduced to this scene when news hit international media of Varg Vikernes (Burzum) being arrested and tried for burning a number of churches across Norway. The media across the world had a field day with the story, labeling the initially underground movement of Black Metal being driven by “Satanic” influences.

The crimes, the deaths, and the church burnings quickly became identifiable with the Black Metal movement from Norway; but it opened up a new surge of followers that established the sound of Norwegian Black Metal as an integral and significant part of the history of metal in general.