Album Review: "Blackbraid III" by Blackbraid

 

BLACKBRAID “Blackbraid III” Wolf Mountain Productions

    The most transcendent moment on the third album by indigenous black metal band Blackbraid happens during the transition from the song “The Earth Is Weeping” to “God of Black Blood.” “The Earth is Weeping” is a haunting instrumental featuring a repetitive acoustic chord progression highlighted by loon vocalizations. The call of the loons, one of the most revered northwoods birds, combined with the guitar strumming is hypnotic–only to be broken by the guttural shrieks that start the crushing momentum of “God of Black Blood”--one of the best compositions on the album.      Like earlier tracks on the album “Wardrums at Dawn on the Day of my Death” and “The Dying Breath of a Sacred Stag,” “God of Black Blood” displays the galloping blast beats and guitar riffage of past Blackbraid album offerings. “Blackbraid III” may have more acoustic, atmospheric tracks than other albums by the artist, but there’s more than enough heaviness to balance it out. “Tears of the Dawn” is black metal epic that rumbles along for over nine minutes. But the most sublime moments happen when tracks veer into folk black metal territory: “God of Black Blood” seamlessly weaves a flute solo into the guitar-breakdown groove, perhaps the second best moment on the album. 

8/10

–Jason Scales

This review ran in the November 2025 print issue of Illinois Entertainer. Click here and flip to page 37 for that version.