Entombed is a hugely influential Swedish Death and Roll band that has been active since 1987. Death and Roll is a sub-genre that might not even exist without Entombed in fact. They were among the very first acts to conjoin the sound of death metal to groove metal and classic rock. The band’s third album, Wolverine Blues, is considered a seminal moment in the establishment of the form.

They were also one of the first metal bands to utilize the “buzzsaw” guitar tone that has always been so prevalent in punk rock. Their guitar sound was so unique in metal that Kurt Ballou of groundbreaking metal core band Converge has sighted seeing Entombed on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball in the early ’90s as the inspiration for his legendary guitar tone.

Washington state band Black Breath is many things to many different people. They incorporate elements from across the metal spectrum ranging from thrash to hardcore to doom and several points in between. But the one common thread running through all of their work is the strong anti-Christian aesthetic of black metal. There may be no better example of the convergence of all of these elements than the track “Black Sin (Spit On The Cross)” from their second full length album, 2012’s Sentenced To Life. Check it out here below.

After waiting for drummer Jamie Bynum to recover from multiple fractures to his leg from being hit by a car in early 2014, Black Breath are currently hard at work on their third album. It is due later this year via powerhouse metal label Southern Lord. Keep an eye out here for details on the album as they emerge.

If you grew up during the 1980s, you know that metal was pretty much divided into two camps: the good time, party metal that dominated MTV with bands like Motley Crue, Dokken, Scorpions, and Van Halen, and the no-frills, extreme artists that were pushing the boundaries of what “heavy” meant like Metallica, Slayer, Venom, Sepultura, and Bathory.

While I generally considered myself to be of the latter camp, I also liked girls and girls liked Bon Jovi, who fell squarely in the first camp. And so it was that I found myself at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis on the night of July 19th, 1985. I was just shy of 15 and my girlfriend’s mom drove us the 60 miles from our hometown to see Bon Jovi opening for Ratt. In the interest of full disclosure, I was a pretty big Ratt fan and actively hated Bon Jovi (in part, no doubt, due to the fact that my girlfriend was obsessed with singer Jon Bon Jovi).

New Orleans’ blackened thrash band Goatwhore arose from the ashes of two of that city’s most legendary bands. When Acid Bath broke up, guitarist Sammy Duet hooked up with former Soilent Green singer Ben Falgoust, guitarist Ben Stout, bassist Patrick Bruders, and drummer Zak Nolan. They took their moniker from an Aleister Crowley ritual involving goat semen (don’t ask!). Over the course of the last 18 years, Goatwhore has delivered 6 albums of the most brutal black thrash ever conceived. The band’s unrelenting assault both live and on record has garnered them a rabid following that continues to grow.

Here, with the opening track of their fourth album, 2009’s Carving Out the Eyes of God, is Goatwhore with their anthem “Apocalyptic Havoc.”

Germany’s Thulcandra take their name from the legendary black metal band Darkthrone’s 1989 demo of the same name. Darkthrone had borrowed the term from the C.S. Lewis novel Out of the Silent Planet.

Over the course of the last five years, Thulcandra have established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the world of black metal. On February 10, 2015, they released their third full-length album, Ascension Lost, and based on early reviews, it seems like their stock will continue to rise.

For this edition of Black Metal Friday, we revisit Thulcandra’s awe-inspiring debut album — 2010’s Fallen Angel’s Dominion. Here is the mighty Thulcandra with “Legions of Darkness.”