Blackbraid III

Origin and Spirit of Blackbraid

I feel like a traveler who, at the crossroads of the Adirondack Mountains, the rugged, mist-shrouded homeland that shapes Blackbraid’s sound, finds the soundtrack of an ancestral soul. Blackbraid is not a band; it’s a field of energy emerging from the hands of Jon Krieger or rather, Sgah’gahsowáh. Since 2022, this solo project has been weaving the brutality of black metal with threads of Indigenous tradition, as if carving stories into the stones of time. With each release, the intent seems clear: to reclaim roots and set stages ablaze with an ancestral fury full of melody and spirit.

The Ritual of Listening to Blackbraid III

It felt like stepping into a ruined temple still pulsing with longing. The album opens like a deep sigh, a funeral reimagined at the start, with acoustic textures that invite reverence. And then, suddenly, it cuts your breath with fierce riffs and tribal beats that sound like war drums. It’s a dense whirl of riffs, more seductive than blades. The acoustic interludes, flutes, rain, birdsong are not escapes. They are vortices pulling the soul back to the earth before hurling it once again into sublime carnage. They are pauses that, instead of breaking the pace, sharpen the contrast between introspection and sonic avalanche.

Strength, Melody, and Soundscape

What floored me about this album is how aggression and beauty dance together. There are riffs so direct they feel like thunder carved into granite, yet they unfold into virulent melodies with a singing soul. Blackbraid III finds its power in balancing the sensation of hearing a roar in the void while also feeling as if nature itself were speaking inside your chest.

Ambition and Refinement

This album is not just a squeeze of raw intensity, it’s an expanded map of ambitions. The production, as clear as icy dew, gives each instrument room to breathe: guitar, percussion, acoustics, torrential vocals. And even with ten tracks, it promotes a continuous narrative: from discomfort to catharsis, in a ritualistic and cohesive cycle.

Meeting Point Between Ancestry and Innovation

I’m left with the feeling that Sgah’gahsowáh is not merely playing, he’s stoking ancient embers, renewing identities. If, in earlier projects, this was a glimpse, here it is a declaration. Blackbraid III is a marriage between the extreme fury of black metal and the ancestral tenderness of flutes. It’s like walking through mountain fog and suddenly finding a bonfire lit by a ritual that never died.

Final Thoughts

If my soul were a guitar solo, Blackbraid III would be that final bend that gives you chills. It’s an album that pulses with ancestry, cradling in its chaos a melody that resonates in bones and lungs. In 2025, few things in metal sound this authentic and this grand at the same time. If you want to feel a past that echoes into the future, dive into it and brace your heart.