Blackbraid: The Forest Never Sleeps
From the moment BLACKBRAID first emerged in 2022, the project has quickly established itself as a driving force in modern black metal: raw, spiritual, and deeply rooted in nature. The project’s first two releases, suitably titled Blackbraid I and II, have been lapped up in extreme music circles and it feels like we have a truly special gem on our hands. With the release of the project’s third full-length release, Blackbraid III, we caught up with Jon Krieger, aka Sgah’gahsowáh, the mastermind of the project, to reflect on the whirlwind journey so far and the emotional weight of crafting a trilogy of records.
“It’s definitely a crazy feeling for sure,” Jon begins, reflecting on the imminent arrival of the third record when we talk back at the tail end of June. “I was definitely more nervous about putting this one out to start. I spent a lot more time on it, with the production and the writing and stuff. The first two, I almost feel like I kind of just flew through them when I was recording. Because I didn’t really have a following, even the second one, I gained more of a following, but you have to think I wrote most of that way before it was out. So back when I was writing it, BLACKBRAID was pretty small and it was very much a hobby still back then.”
That sense of growth and pressure has shaped the creative process behind Blackbraid III, which Jon describes as more deliberate, refined, razor-sharp. “I’d write songs and I’d be like, ‘fuck it, it’s done. Let’s put it out’. This time, I found myself feeling a lot more pressure to write something really good and taking more time on the songs. For a long time it was kind of intimidating. I was a little more nervous and critiquing myself more than I usually would. But now that it’s done and about to come out, it’s the opposite. I’m very happy with how it turned out and I’m even more excited to let people hear it than the previous ones.”
That excitement is well-founded. Blackbraid III feels like the most complete and considered entry in the trilogy. Wardrums at Dawn on the Day of My Death is a thundering opener after scene setter Dusk (Eulogy), where as The Dying Breath of a Sacred Stage boasts an absolute earworm of a riff that will remain firmly planted in your mind on loop. “It still feels like the same project,” Jon. “Like I’m going in the same direction, but I think everything is just a bit bigger and more thought out. It seems more finished in my mind, more of a complete project.”
The ‘trilogy’ wasn’t always the plan. In fact, Jon initially envisioned a departure from the sound of the first two records. “I actually have some raw, more atmospheric songs that I still haven’t finished. When I first finished Blackbraid II, I’d been working on that stuff since then and I was like, the next record is going to be rawer and more atmospheric.” But as winter set in, the songs began to flow and they weren’t what he expected. “These songs kind of just started pouring out of me again. I didn’t really expect it. I thought the third album would be a lot different, and it’s a lot closer to the first two than I thought it would be.” The result is a record that feels like it was written in the stars. “It feels like it was meant to be. I was kind of pushing against it in my head a bit at the beginning, but it seemed like this is what the third album really was meant to be for me.”
Beyond the studio, BLACKBRAID’s journey has taken John across continents. From a UK debut at Fortress Festival last year to a slot at Incineration Fest in London, the project has found fertile ground overseas. “Being able to go overseas and continually do so well in Europe is definitely helping me. It gives me confidence. We’re doing so good, I want to keep going and make it better!”
The UK in particular has become a stronghold. “England has been crazy too. Now we’re doing things we never thought we’d do. Last time we toured Europe, it was all of Europe, and now we’re looking at possibly just doing a UK tour [this has now been confirmed for April 2026] because we do so well in the UK alone.”
That success is all the more remarkable given BLACKBRAID’s fiercely DIY ethos, which has remained a vital foundation of the project since the very beginning. Jon remains in full control of the project’s direction, from touring schedules to creative decisions. “I’m a pretty big control freak, so I love it. I’m not young, I’m 35, and I don’t want to tour endlessly just to do it. It’s really exhausting and you get pretty depressed sometimes too. Most bands our size will tour eight or nine months out of the year. I want to do a big tour like one or two months tops. Travelling is exhausting and I don’t like being away from home.”
He continues, “the first year we started playing shows with BLACKBRAID, I had never been on tour. We were doing huge shows and playing Hellfest and Copenhell. It was like being thrown to the wolves. We definitely did too much that year. I was so exhausted at the end. Back then I couldn’t wait to go home and not play music for months. But now, since we’re better at managing our time and picking and choosing what we want to do, as soon as it ends I’m like, ‘damn, I wish it was still going!’”
That sense of joy and purpose is mirrored in the music itself. At the heart of BLACKBRAID lies a deep spiritual connection to nature, a theme that runs through every note and lyric as Jon operates from his base in Adirondack Mountains, New York. “I’ve been listening to black metal forever, much longer than before I started writing stuff for BLACKBRAID. What really got me into black metal when I was young was probably that aspect of it, the infatuation with nature and spirituality, especially the darker side of those things. I’ve always lived in the woods and I spend a tonne of time in nature. Most of my life. When you’re in the woods all the time by yourself, it’s pretty easy to understand where a lot of that music comes from.”
“When I’m alone and hiking, I’m always listening to black metal. That’s when a lot of the writing comes to me, stuff that’s going through my head while I’m out in the wilderness by myself. You can write anything you want about nature. I could put out a death metal record with the same lyrics and it would still work. There’s no end to what you can do with it. There’s so much room for inspiration in the forest and nature. It’s kind of like an endless supply.”
But that reverence is tempered by concern. The climate crisis looms large in the background, influencing the emotional tone of the music. We’re seeing recurring extreme weather events and the ongoing course spells disaster for every living creature that calls Earth home. “It’s a very grim, sad place in history we’re at with the climate crisis,” Jon sighs. “Humans… our bubble is about to pop. We can’t really sustain our population on Earth anymore without destroying the Earth. I haven’t written about it too much, none of the songs are directly about modern issues, but it’s always angering me. It’s always in there at some point. It’s part of my emotions, even if it’s not the content of the song.”
That emotional honesty is what makes BLACKBRAID resonate so deeply and makes it feel truly authentic. Imperfections are embraced, not erased. “I’m changing things that no one can hear except for me. It’s kind of relieving in a way to know that there’s imperfections hidden in all of them.”
With the trilogy complete and a growing presence on both sides of the Atlantic, BLACKBRAID is quietly becoming one of the most vital names in modern black metal. The groundwork has been laid and the vision is intact, BLACKBRAID’s place in the underground is only getting stronger as the wardrums grow louder.
Blackbraid III is out now via self-release. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS123 here:
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