The Social Life of the Record (2013-…) is an occasional series of texts by musicians, fans, critics, collectors, sellers, label owners, etc. reflecting on recording, releasing, digging, listening to, filing, flipping and playing records today.

Listening to Bathory’s album Under the Sign of the Black Mark, this third edition of The Social Life of a Record is an investigation into the origins of black metal and its impact. In conversation with the guitarist Jon Albjerg Ravnholt, writer and critic Staffan Boije af GennКs discuss the outcome of this album and the birth of the black metal genre. The text is full of references and indications opening up an understanding of the black metal genre and its origins even for the uninitiated.