Blackbraid in Barcelona: the Adirondack ritual reaches Razzmatazz 3 for one night only
On August 11, 2026, Razzmatazz 3 in Barcelona hosts Blackbraid — among the most distinctive and genuinely exciting voices in contemporary black metal. The project is the work of Jon Krieger, a multi-instrumentalist of Indigenous American descent who records under the name Sgah’gahsowáh, a Mohawk word meaning “the witch hawk”. His music is rooted in the wild landscape of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York and in centuries of Native American history — a foundation that sets Blackbraid apart from virtually everything else in the genre.
The project was announced in February 2022, and its debut album Blackbraid I immediately became an underground phenomenon: it topped Bandcamp’s metal chart, ranked second across all genres on the platform, and appeared on year-end best-of lists from Rolling Stone, Decibel, and Metal Injection — all without label backing. The music blends the melodic ferocity of atmospheric black metal, drawing on declared influences including Dissection, Immortal, and Wolves in the Throne Room, with acoustic interludes, Native American flutes, and lyrics addressing genocide, resistance, and humanity’s connection to the natural world. Blackbraid II (2023) expanded on that foundation, and Blackbraid III, released in August 2025, has been received as the project’s strongest work yet — Metal Hammer, Angry Metal Guy, and Distorted Sound all placed it among the best metal albums of 2025, praising its balance of devastatingly heavy riffs and profoundly atmospheric passages rooted in nature and Indigenous tradition.
Live, Blackbraid performs with a full band that Krieger assembled specifically for the stage, translating the intensity of his solo recordings into a collective ritual of considerable power. The Barcelona date is the only Spanish stop on the European run. Advance tickets are priced at €25, with door price on the night at €30, available exclusively through madnesslive.es.
