Blackbraid

The witch hawk

Blackbraid is one person's work. Jon Krieger records and performs as Sgah'gahsowáh, a Mohawk name that translates as "the witch hawk", and he started the project in 2022 in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York, where he still writes. He handles vocals, guitars, bass and keyboards himself; the drums on the first album were played by Neil Schneider as a session musician, and a full band exists only for touring and videos.

The music sits between two traditions he has named repeatedly: the Scandinavian second wave of Dissection, Gorgoroth, Satyricon, Bathory, Mayhem and Immortal, and the American atmospheric strand of Wolves in the Throne Room and Panopticon. What separates it from either is the Native American flute, used as a lead instrument rather than decoration, alongside extended acoustic passages.

Krieger has drawn the link between the genre and his own material in plain terms, telling the Albany Times Union in October 2025 that the pagan, anti-Christian, nature-worshipping themes of Scandinavian black metal in the 1980s and 1990s "goes hand-in-hand with the Native American experience". He has pushed back on being read as a political act, describing Blackbraid as largely an outlet for his own emotions, while the lyrics deal with Native American history, the genocide of Indigenous peoples and attachment to land. Where commentators have questioned his tribal affiliation, he has confirmed his Native American heritage.

Three albums and an EP

Blackbraid I arrived in 2022 as a self-release and did the work of a debut that nobody had been told to expect. It was named among the year's best metal records by Rolling Stone, placed in Decibel's top 40, appeared on Metal Injection's underground list and was picked out by Bandcamp as one of the best metal releases of August 2022. Its opening salvo, "Barefoot Ghost Dance on Blood Soaked Soil", is a song Krieger has described as a war song about suffering and genocide; four years on it remains the most-performed Blackbraid track, logged by setlist trackers 60 times, level with "The Spirit Returns".

Blackbraid II followed in 2023 and widened the conceptual frame without changing the method. Blackbraid III, released on 8 August 2025 through Wolf Mountain Productions, is the most deliberately built of the three: ten tracks opening with the 62-second "Dusk (Eulogy)", two long pieces in "Tears of the Dawn" at 9:18 and "And He Became the Burning Stars…" at 9:50, and a cover of Lord Belial's "Fleshbound" to finish. Krieger took vocals, guitars and bass; Schneider played session drums and also mixed and mastered it; Randy Moore guested on lead guitar for "God of Black Blood". The sleeve pairs a painting by Adam Burke with illustration by long-standing collaborator Adrian Baxter. The Headbanging Moose read it as a clear step up on its predecessors.

Nocturnal Womb, issued on 6 March 2026 on the same label, is the project's first EP: the title track, "Celestial Bloodlust" and an acoustic rebuild of "Barefoot Ghost Dance on Blood Soaked Soil". The two new songs were reportedly written for Blackbraid III and left off for being too dark and visceral to fit it. Where Strides the Behemoth scored it 4/5, calling "Celestial Bloodlust" among the thrashiest material recorded under the name and hearing Agalloch, Wolves in the Throne Room and Panopticon in the acoustic version.

From a Bandcamp upload to real bills

The climb was quick and not entirely smooth. In spring 2023 Blackbraid was on the Decibel Magazine Tour alongside Dark Funeral, Cattle Decapitation and 200 Stab Wounds. That August the project headlined Midgardsblot in Norway and was then asked to leave the festival after an incident involving alleged intoxication and a confrontation with security. Krieger initially said he had been racially targeted, and later accepted that the situation had been handled poorly on all sides.

2025 was the first year the project carried a tour on its own name, with a debut national headline run in the United States and Lamp of Murmuur and Dödsrit sharing much of it. A 22 September 2025 date at Tree's in Dallas ran about an hour and a quarter and showed the limits of the setup at that stage: the reviewer for HarshVocals found the mix for the headliner undialled, with the touring guitarist's amp thin and the kick drum sitting over the guitars, in front of a Monday-night room that needed prompting. Six days later, on 28 September, the Albany show at Empire Live brought it home to the nearest city to the Adirondacks, with Lamp of Murmuur in support and the Times Union placing Krieger as a rising figure in an Indigenous surge within black metal.

Where things stand in October 2026

The year began with a seven-date UK and Ireland headline tour in April 2026, opening at The Fleece in Bristol on the 9th and closing in London on the 15th, with Winterfylleth and the Spanish band Noctem supporting throughout. The second night, 10 April at Rebellion in Manchester, sold out.

The autumn has been spent in support. On 21 September 2026 a North American run was announced to start the following week, placing Blackbraid on Cradle of Filth's Majestic in Death II tour from 29 September at the Observatory North Park in San Diego to 26 October at Bogart's in Cincinnati, with Worm and Black Satellite also on the bill. The Brooklyn date at Saint Vitus on 23 October sold out. A headline show at HQ in Denver on 28 October closes the leg. As of mid-October the tour is working the East Coast: Norwalk on the 16th, Starland Ballroom in Sayreville on the 17th, Baltimore Soundstage on the 19th.

Then straight back over. November brings a European and British run supporting Converge, with Sanguisugabogg and Pupil Slicer also on the bill, from 12 to 22 November — La Laiterie in Strasbourg on the 15th, then Project House in Leeds on the 18th, Electric Bristol on the 19th, the TV Studio at SWG3 in Glasgow on the 20th, Rock City in Nottingham on the 21st and Electric Brixton in London on the 22nd. It is the largest room Blackbraid will have played in Britain, and it will be played as an opener rather than a headliner.

The live verdict is genuinely split

Two reviews from consecutive nights in April 2026 land in opposite places, which is the most honest summary available. Rich Oliver, writing for The Razor's Edge on the Bristol opener, called the headline set "very solid, competent and enjoyable" but judged it short on stage presence and crowd engagement next to the supports, concluding that Blackbraid "is impressive on record but they were very much outshone by the support acts in the live setting". He noted the Native American flute arrived only in the final two songs.

The following night in Manchester, At The Barrier saw a different show from the same personnel — commanding presence from Sgah'gahsowáh, extended guitar solos marking the headliner out from the two bands before it, and the frontman stepping off the low stage into the crowd. That writer called the evening "a stupendously good night of extreme metal" and the run "a tour not to miss".

Both reviews agree on the mechanics. The touring outfit is hired musicians behind a solo writer, the set draws across all three albums rather than pushing the newest one, and the staging is modest: Indigenous markings, ceremonial objects on stage and the flute, with no production beyond lighting. The gap between the two nights looks less like inconsistency of material than a project still learning to be a live band at the scale the records have earned it.