Why on Earth is GoD featuring aMetallica video for Black Metal Friday, you ask? Well, just two days ago, the trash metal legends released videos for all 13 tracks from their highly anticipated tenth studio album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, which is available worldwide today, November 18, 2016, via the band’s own Blackened Recordings label.

One of those clips was for the song “ManUNkind” and featured a group of actors performing onstage in corpse paint and bearing a striking resemblance to the notorious Norwegian band Mayhem. I had commented in my review of Hardwired… To Self-Destruct yesterday that I thought it was just Metallica’s way of trolling the metal trolls. Well, it turns out that it is actually our first look at Lords Of Chaos, the upcoming feature film following the almost surreal saga of Mayhem.

Skitliv is a Norwegian blackened doom metal supergroup which features former Mayhem vocalist Sven Erik “Maniac” Kristiansen and former Shining vocalist Niklas Kvarforth. The band’s name literally means “shitty life” in Norwegian and is an appropriate moniker for a band with such a bleak and misanthropic sound.

Today’s Black Metal Friday track comes from the band’s only proper, full-length release, 2009’s Skandinavisk Misantropi. It is the album’s third track and is entitled “Hollow Devotion.”

Very few bands can lay claim to having their demo tapes lay the foundation for an entire, enduring genre of music. Thorns is one of those bands. In 1989, Snorre Ruch and Marius Vold formed a band called Stigma Diabolicum. That project yielded two demos before the Latin moniker was dropped in favor of the more memorable name Thorns. Three more demos were recorded and ended up being circulated amongst the “inner circle” of the burgeoning Norwegian black metal scene. The guitar techniques and tones that Snorre utilized on these tapes were widely imitated and are often cited as the very genesis of the second wave of black metal.

Unfortunately, Thorns would enter an extended hiatus before their debut full-length album could be recorded. Snorre had the misfortune of being present the night that Varg Vikernes murdered his Mayhem bandmate Euronymous. Snorre’s silence about the events and lack of cooperation with the authorities led to a conviction for being an accomplice to murder and an 8-year prison sentence.

The “Black Metal Warfare Tour” pulled into its final stop at the historic Fonda Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA, on the night of January 31, 2015. The tour, which featured co-headliners Watain and Mayhem along with Canadian opening band Revenge, was one of the most anticipated black metal jaunts in recent memory and that was evidenced by the mood in the air amongst the capacity crowd. Fortunate enough to find myself on Watain’s guest list, I was able to scope the festivities from my bird’s eye view in the balcony.

It was an amazing night as there was very strange vibe in the air. Black metal shows, in my experience tend to be a bit more somber, almost morose affairs in general. There was, however a certain (dare I say) excitement in the air for this particular outing. I’m not sure what it was; the beautiful historic venue, a nearly full moon or the sheer excitement of seeing this lineup with a sold out crowd of like minded black metal enthusiasts. But there was definitely an electric feel buzzing around me.

Much to the joy of black metal fans all across North America, Norwegian black metal legends Mayhem and the diabolical Swedes Watain have announced that they will co-headlining a North American tour sweep. They are calling it the Black Metal Warfare tour and it will commence January 8th in Philadelphia.

The trek takes them through several stops in the upper Midwest, portions of Canada, the Northeast, and the Pacific Northwest before winding down January 31st in Los Angeles.

Check out the full list of videos and listen to a couple of the bands’ tracks below.

Mayhem is the most infamous and, arguably, the most influential band of the second wave of black metal. The band’s debut album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, is widely considered to be one of the most influential recordings that the genre has ever produced. It was an album seven years in the making. Songwriting started in 1987 and by the time the record hit shelves in 1994 two of the band’s most pivotal members would be dead.

Listen to one of the tracks from the album, “Freezing Moon,” here below.

On July 8th, a French court found Varg Vikernes guilty of inciting racial hatred and exalting war crimes. Vikernes is the sole member of Norwegian black metal and ambient band Burzum and is an outspoken National Socialist (read: Nazi), anti-semite, xenophobe. He is widely known for his role in burning several churches to the ground in Norway in the early ’90s and then murdering his Mayhem bandmate Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth) by stabbing him 23 times over a contract dispute. Vikernes, then going by the stage name of Count Grishnackh, maintained that he killed Euronymous in self-defense with an explanation so convoluted as to be laughable. If you want to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, you can do so here. He was convicted for the murder and sentenced to 21 years in prison (the maximum sentence in Norway). Vikernes famously turned to the cameras in the courtroom and smiled when his sentence was read.

I am in the process of transitioning all of the columns from my personal blog over to Geeks Of Doom. I already started with Thrashback Thursday, so now it’s time for Black Metal Friday. For this column, I usually spotlight a band video or, more often, an audio link, since many black metal artists shy away from making videos.

For my first installment on GoD, I have decided to share with you all a fantastic and riveting documentary on Scandinavian black metal. Black Metal Satanica is a very thorough examination of the genre. For anyone interested in knowing more about the subject, this is an excellent place to start! Watch the full documentary here below.

Black metal is an underground sub-genre of heavy metal emanating largely from Scandanavia. There has historically been a large amount of controversy surrounding black metal due to its primary themes of blasphemy and/or Satanism and the nefarious activities of many of its most prominent musicians (i.e., murder, suicides, and church burnings).

This year has been rife with major happenings from many of the founders of the black metal genre. Metal’s most notorious band, Mayhem, released their first album in seven years, titled Esoteric Warfare. King Diamond announced his first U.S. tour in nearly a decade, including a Halloween show in L.A., which I will be reviewing [the NYC GoD crew will be at the New York show in October]. We also observed the 10th anniversary of the death of Bathory leader and the man who many consider to be the father of Scandinavian black metal, Quorthon.

If you’re a metalhead and into crafts, this one might be right up your alley.

Coming complete with a Flying V guitar, pentagram necklace, and bullet-belt; the only thing missing from this little Black Metal dude is the complete burning church playset. The awesome little figure, pictured right (click for enlarged version), is the result of an amigurumi crochet project created by the folks over at Karabouts.

The detail on this little guy is pretty stunning. The spiked gauntlets are made from tacks, the pentagram is actually an earring, and the bullet-belt is made from silver beads. The coolness of this awesome project just makes me want throw out the metal horns and growl some Satanic lyrics.

The artists behind this remarkable amigurumi are the Mike and Kara Amigurumi Design Team and you can check out more photos of the Black Metal dude (posed in front of a church!) and more of their creations at their website.