"To get right to it, Blackbraid II is an early contender for black metal record of the year... able to take the traditional sounds of black metal and then further shape and move them in a very distinct and novel direction." - Metal Injection (10/10)

Blackbraid Live 2024 (EU/UK):

06/02: Scarborough (UK) @ Fortress Festival

06/21: Kauhajoki (FI) @ Nummirock Metal Festival

06/23: Ukmergė (LT) @ Kilkim Zaibu Festival

08/10: Helsinki (FI) @ Helsinki Metal Fetsival

10/11-12: Nijmegen (NL) @ Soulcrusher Festival

Blackbraid Live 2024 (US):

09/21: Los Angeles, CA @ C.Y. Festival

"...you can hear a delicately strummed acoustic guitar here, a traditional flute there. Catchy riffs, most notably on the single 'The Spirit Returns,' coexist with ambitious tracks like the 13-plus-minute 'Moss Covered Bones on the Altar of the Moon,' which waxes and wanes like an epic saga." - The New York Times

"...one of the finest albums to grace black metal in years and you just get the feeling there is still more to come from this truly special band." - Distorted Sound Magazine (10/10)

"Sgah’gahsowáh channels his heritage and love for the earth through his music, and with that, he also brings a certain energy that conjures up desert dunes and rolling planes from North America just as well as a Norwegian black metal band conjures up snowy, bleak hills." - Metal Sucks (4.5/5)

"...forging a new path forward for black metal in 2023, one that will likely continue to set him apart from his contemporaries and become one of the biggest new faces in the genre for years to come." - Heavy Music HQ (4.5/5)

'Blackbraid II' follows up the solo black metal project's critically-acclaimed debut, which was named among one of the best metal albums if 2022 by Rolling Stone (#14), Decibel Magazine (#4), Metal Hammer UK (#7), and more!

BLACKBRAID E-SHOP

Indigenous black metal master BLACKBRAID will be performing in The Netherlands for the first time this October! The project will be appearing at this year's edition of Soulcrusher Festival, which will take place from October 11-12 in Nijmegen (NL), alongside an eclectic mix of artists such as ZEAL & ARDOR, LAMP OF MURMUUR, PHARMAKON + more! Tickets can be found HERE.

This will not be Blackbraid's only appearance across the Atlantic this year as other festival appearances have been confirmed such as Fortress Festival (UK), Nummirock Metal Festival+ Helsinki Metal Festival (FI), and Kilkim Zaibu Festival (FI). For American fans who are looking for their fix, Blackbraid will also be performing at C.Y. Festival in Los Angeles, CA on September 21. The full itinerary can be found below while tickets can be found HERE.

'Blackbraid II' can now be streamed everywhere or ordered via Bandcamp or The Official Blackbraid Merch Store!

Blackbraid is a solo indigenous black metal project from from the depths of the Adirondack wilderness creating music as raw and powerful as the mountains from whence it came…

'Blackbraid II' Album Credits:

- Composed & performed by Sgah'gahsowáh

- Drums, recording, mixing & mastering by Neil Schneider

- Visual development & graphic design by Wolf Mountain Productions

- Guitar solo in “Twilight Hymn of Ancient Blood" performed by Randy Moore

- “A Fine Day to Die" originally composed by Quorthon (Bathory)

Album Art: Adrian Baxter

Photographer: Wolf Mountain Productions

Follow // Listen:

Shop/Pre-order:

Official Merch Store (USA)

Blackbraid is an independent artist and is not contracted to or owned by any music label.

Management: Ashley @ Wolf Mountain Productions

As humanity hurtles chaotically, blindly, and seemingly willingly towards what may well be its last act, The Netherlands, NYC’s hulking, intoxicatingly heavy progressive-sludge trio, has returned with an LP which attempts to filter the fury, glimmers of hope, and untenable intensity of life in the anthropocene into a 10 song narrative whirlwind which sounds unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

'SEVERANCE' is the 9th release from multi-instrumentalist, compulsive creator, and unrepentant volume addict Timo Ellis (Cibo Matto, Spacehog, Yoko Ono) under The Netherlands moniker. 'SEVERANCE' features all the hallmarks of Ellis’ work, including blistering post-shred guitar heroics, primal drumming, and soulful, yet searing caterwauls.

But, as with every Netherlands release, Ellis has inexplicably found a way to ratchet up the intensity, render the dynamic shifts more extreme, and hone his menacing melange of melody and rhythm into a uniquely weaponized form of rock ‘n’ roll that reaches towards high art.

Check out the Video for "Omisha"

While Ellis is perpetually working, he’s not one to work without a grander purpose than loud music for the sake of loud music.

In the man’s own words, “'SEVERANCE' suggests a catastrophic separation, explosively brought about in the last 250 years by techno-industrial civilization and the human supremacist worldview, which separates us from the Earth, from each other, and from ourselves.

"This album is about the urgent need to return to values, traditions, and rituals that restore our connection with the Earth, all of its creatures, and ourselves. It’s about abolishing corporate capitalism, unchecked technological expansion, and halting the unnecessary pillaging of this planet’s creatures and 'resources'...about a path forward that integrates modern foundations of fairness, community, compassion, love, and sovereignty for all people, animals, and Earth systems.”

An admittedly heavy conceptual weight to lift, 'SEVERANCE's exceptionally cinematic arc is aided by Ellis’ stream-of-conscience prose which lends an earnest, exasperated voice to the outrage so many of us feel in our daily lives as we’re blinded by screens and lulled into complacency by various systems of oppression.

Pre-Order / Save 'SEVERANCE' HERE

An album exploring topics as heavy as the ones 'SEVERANCE' tackles requires sonics to match. For Ellis -- a prolific producer and engineer himself -- the skills and peerless engineering sensibilities of taste making heavy music producer Kurt Ballou (Converge, High On Fire) and the hallowed walls of Ballou’s God City Studio in Salem, Mass, proved the ideal space to capture the record’s massive sounds.

For Ellis, Ballou’s unmatched attention to detail and “comprehensive tuning” of the drum and organic guitar sounds on 'SEVERANCE' proved to be an x-factor in capturing the most monstrous and fully refined Netherlands release to date. The experience of tracking 'SEVERANCE' with Ballou surpassed all of Ellis’ expectations, and reinforced the NETHrock mastermind’s belief that Ballou is “one of the best and most artfully-minded heavy music producers of his generation.”

'SEVERANCE' is another chapter in the book of a band that’s consistently released heavy music on its own terms and with its own undeniable personality. There’s a reason contemporary heavy metal luminaries like Joe Dupontier of Gojira and Bill Kellihar of Mastodon count themselves amongst The Netherland’s biggest fans, and 'SEVERANCE’s 10 tracks prove The Netherland's potency once again.

BLACKBRAID to Perform at SOULCRUSHER FESTIVAL in The Netherlands

NYC Sludge Rockers THE NETHERLANDS Announce New Album 'Severance' to be Released March 30