“Fuuuuck, this guy is really fucking good. This bodes well for tonight, ” I said to my review crew colleague Phil, a song and a half into the four bands line-up that would lead to Cattle Decapitation and Dark Funeral at Club Soda, last month.
It indeed bodes well when I say fuck twice in the same sentence.
It indeed bodes well when I say fuck twice in the same sentence.
Two songs deeper into the set, I would grab him by the collar, shriek, mean mug, flash my horns and generally lose my shit while he tried to save his beer from spilling all over his tie-dye Cattle Decap t-shirt. What band was I responding to on such a primal level? New York’s own Blackbraid, a one man black metal project from Jon Krieger, better known as Sgah’gahsowáh, who was lighting Montreal on fire with his live musicians. One of these skullcrushing songs I heard that night was on Blackbraid’s new album, simply titled II, which more than lives up to the intensity and the creativity of their mesmerizing stage presence. It will be out for people to listen to on July 7, but here’s what to pay attention to and why you should pay attention to it.
Blackbraid II opens up the sound of a fire burning and an acoustic guitar intro reminiscent of the melodic boldness of the Mikael Stanne-era In Flames (not the last time I’ll refer to this) before transitioning into The Spirit Returns, an all-out black metal assault built out of the same riffs as the intro. It’s graceful, pulse-pounding and a tiny bit proggy, which fits in this context. Brutality and torment dance together an emotional complex tango on this song, which is really difficult not to respond to.
The Wolf That Guides The Hunter’s Hand cranks up the tempo and the emotional intensity of Blackbraid II. It’s a whopping seven and a half minutes long, but it never really dies down. Sometimes it’s Sgah’gahsowáh’s commanding vocal performance that carries the song, sometimes it’s the stellar drum performance or the judicious implementation of tremolo picking (there’s never too much on that record), but feeling this intense for this long is some kind of exploit. Even when it slows down, the sheer power of interpretation is undeniable. Following is Spells of Moon and Earth, a much welcomed interlude featuring acoustic guitar and flute, which sets a mystical, shamanic mood for what’s coming next and what’s coming next is the very heart of Blackbraid II.
Moss Covered Bones on the Altar of the Moon is a HAUNTED THIRTEEN MINUTES AND HALF CONCEPTUAL EPIC (you all know how much I love long songs) about the completion of a magick ritual that features GORGEOUS FUCKING MID-TEMPO GUITARS (you all know how much I love slowed down black metal). It’s super proggy, but not in a nerdy way. It’s experimental and weird and freeing in more ways than one. Ghosts and spirits will swirl into your headphones while listening to this, but in a positive way? This song is very much about embracing cosmic darkness and letting it mold you into a stronger, more attuned person. Moss (I’m gonna call it that if you don’t mind) is a special, vibrant and oddly life-affirming song. It’s music to pound your chest and rethink your life to.
In case your were not emotionally exhausted already, Sgah’gahsowáh is following this majestic offering with the eleven minutes long A Song of Death On The Winds Of Dawn which, blast beats aside, is the other song on this record reminding me of In Flames and old school melodic death metal. It’s a much more aggressive song than Moss, but it’s being counterbalanced by these gorgeous, quieter bridges and melodic passages that layer and nuance the absolute fury that is Blackbraid II. Musical storytelling at its finest. When A Song of Death On The Winds Of Dawn goes quiet, it feels like you’re heading down a secret passage towards the greater truths of the universe. Then it explodes again into a black metal onslaught.
Following this second monolith of a song is Celestial Passage, another interlude meant to prepare you for the last leg of the record. I don’t have much to say about these except that they’re great management for ear fatigue and solid mood enhancers. I wouldn’t say Blackbraid is an atmospheric black metal band per se (at least not in the conventional, synth-heavy sense of the term), but atmosphere is very important to this record. It’s introspective music. The space between the notes are as important as the notes themselves. This one has distorted guitar on it, which is a nice detail that didn’t go unnoticed.
Twilight Hymn of Ancient Blood is another chunky, mid-tempo colossus that almost feels like a death doom song. Sgah’gahsowáh interprets it in a lower voice register. This late on a record, it’s easy to hide less memorable songs, but I don’t believe it’s the case here. Twilight has an identity of its own and explores a vast array of ideas that makes it as fun as any songs on this record. The transition into an old school, eighties speed metal riff halfway through really sold the song for me. That’s the type of stunt Darkthrone would pull on their most recent records, but a newcomer like Sgah’gahsowáh? The sheer balls on this guy must be celebrated. After Moss, I think this is my next favorite song on Blackbraid II? I love crazy, out-the-left-field stuff. Especially in conformist genres like black metal where everyone usually tries to sound exactly like the guy who came before them.
That leads us into Sadness And The Passage of Time And Memory, which is, by far, the most introspective song on the record. Once again, the melodic side of Blackbraid shines through the guitar work. It’s never overbearing or obnoxious. It’s always at the service of the overall storytelling endeavor. While it is a good song, I think it suffers from getting squeezed between such absolute fucking giants. I thought it erred too much on the proggy side of things too. Not a mistake or anything, but It’s less my thing. The piece didn’t come together as nicely on this one as they do on the others.
Believe it or not, Blackbraid II ends with a KILLLLEEEEERRRR cover of Bathory’s A Fine Day to Die, that will vaporize your underwear from the sheer intensity and spirit. I don’t think an artist was ever as pertinent as Sgah’gahsowáh in order to cover Bathory. I mean, you know the song. But this interpretation is a fist pumping, horns flashing seven minutes of madness designed to make you lose your shit. If you think Bathory was never meant to be played with good production, wait until you hear this cover. It feels like the demons of hell have been let loose to conquer the Earth. I hate to praise covers too much because it doesn’t belong to the creative paradigm of the band playing, but Sgah’gahsowáh is reappropriating that banger like there’s no tomorrow.
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There’s a new force emerging in the USBM landscape and that force is called Blackbraid. Sgah’gahsowáh’s thoughtful blend of old school heavy metal, classic black metal, prog sensibility and spirituality has a soul of its own. I usually try to find bands that I’m enthusiastic about to review for Vox & Hops, but I’m really, really giddy about Blackbraid and what the future holds for Sgah’gahsowáh. He has a mastery of what black metal is supposed to sound like and wild ideas about what it’s going to sound like in the future. Get on the bandwagon while there’s still space. That dude is going to kill it.
