Review by Vinny for Blackbraid - Blackbraid III (2025)
It feels like Blackbraid has been around forever, when in fact it is just a mere three years of existence for the indigenous black metal solo artist from the Adirondack Mountains. Despite my confusion over how long Blackbraid has been around, this is the first time that I have gotten around to listening to one of his albums. I was interested in the beginning but then (bizarrely) I got pissed off with the constant flood of marketing emails I was getting from him and so I senselessly punished him and myself by not listening to his albums. What a twat I am sometimes.
Nowadays, Vinny comes with some degree of in-built maturity about him and so can understand that for a fearsomely independent artist such as Blackbraid, who must have a queue of labels after him by now, promotion is key to his success. The other element that is central to being successful of course is the quality of your music and album number three certainly delivers on that front. Unafraid to fire some leads into the equation, Sgah'gahsowáh can work beyond just tremolos and blastbeats. His racing and urgently paced tracks carry some real attack behind them. Channelling as much Uada as he does Immortal on tracks such as ‘The Dying Breath of a Sacred Stag’, there’s a fair old bit of power behind those punches that he throws.
As we would expect from a largely atmospheric-black metal act, there are fleeting acoustic passages and flurries of natural sounds akin to Panopticon, alongside the more direct and aggressive black metal sounds. From looking at the eye-catching artwork on the cover (a combination of border work by Adrian Baxter and imagery form Adam Burke) it is hard not to expect some of the more spiritual aspects we get here. There’s no surprises on the album. From a brand perspective, the listener should find exactly what was advertised is delivered.
My first impression of Blackbraid is that this is an incredibly well-written and skilfully performed record. Drummer Neil Schneider puts in a shift behind the skins that supports the rest of the sounds well enough. The guitar in the main is the element that shines however, alongside those harsh vocals they make quite a combo with the melodic leads and harsh riffs to boot. I guess I could criticise the three instrumentals as starting to get a little old by the time we get to track eight. However, they do all serve a purpose and aren’t directionless sounds of motion like whatever it is that is going on with the opening of the latest Drudkh album. There is a much richer melodic bm vein to the record than I was expecting based on previous reviews I have heard of his work. Whilst I won’t go over the top with praise for Blackbraid III, it is a good album. Its use of interludes aside, it is structurally sound and although I will probably not rush out to buy a physical copy I will try to make up for some lost time with Blackbraid by enjoying this record many more times in the coming weeks, months and years.