The Black Vulture Gallery in Fishtown is a three-in-one location that offers up all sorts of fare. It operates variously as a tattoo and piercing shop, an art gallery and a music venue. On First Friday, the gallery had an opening for three artists: Donnie Green, Eric Richardson and Sean Madden, with music by Decap Attak.

Upon entering Black Vulture during its opening on Friday, one of the first things to notice (aside from the packed crowd of people and the chugging metal riffs, perhaps) is that the place is absolutely brimming with art. As opposed to the white-walled, sparsely decorated galleries that stereotypically represent First Friday events, Black Vulture has paintings and objects filling almost every nook and cranny. The maddening amount of work is a good indicator of the mood and style of almost everything in the place. Be warned: this stuff is not for the faint of heart.

You won’t be finding any still lifes here, unless they’re of the bone variety. Of the work on display, some is gory, some is humorous, some is dark and some is wildly surreal. Richardson’s paintings are full of trippy textures and strange creatures. His images range from cow skulls and fetuses to toothed flowers and birds. In “Fertilization,” he draws on the comparisons between a hummingbird pollinating a flower and the conception of an embryo. In the background are the ubiquitous empty-eyed, blob-like characters that make an appearance in many of his paintings. They hold up the bright green fetus in front of a spiral of wispy clouds. The representation of the biological here is both astounding and twisted, posing questions about our role in the universe and the life cycles around us.

Madden displays paintings from the overtly sexual to the amusing and absurd: images of pickles and cartoony representations. One image depicts a girl licking a frog on a stick, and the neon-colored abstractions in the back are indicative of the name “Trippin’ Balls.” “FishLincoln” is a hatless, underwater Abraham Lincoln with the face of a fish, which is just unexpected and quirky enough to be entertaining. Green uses a lot of pop-cultural juxtapositions in fun and offensive ways. He also concocts some more layered, psychedelic-inspired images, like “Donnie’s Inferno,” which is full of spears, fire, hands, toilet paper and flying monkeys.

Decap Attak also played a set of grinding metal to keep things loud and energetic. For a show like this, fast drums and guitar licks are almost necessary, and some faces were definitely melted in the process. The thrashing music in the intimately small crowd at Black Vulture is definitely the ideal way to hear local metal on a Friday night, not to mention check out some wild art as well.

The Black Vulture Gallery is located at 208 E. Girard Ave. in Fishtown; 215-423-3666.