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.