Breakout black metal stars Blackbraid have released a cover of Warriors by supergroup I.
The one-man project, helmed by Jon “Sgah’gahsowáh” Krieger, released their take on the track on Friday (August 16). It’s their first piece of music since they put out their latest album, Blackbraid II, in August 2023. Listen to the cover below.
Blackbraid released their self-titled debut album in 2022 and swiftly went viral. The band, based in the Adirondack mountains, write music about the beauty of the natural world Sgah’gahsowáh grew up around. Their lyrics also tap into Sgah’gahsowáh’s Native American heritage, bringing light to the atrocities the people have suffered.
“A lot of people don’t know our history, but it’s always been at the forefront of my mind,” Sgah’gahsowáh said in a 2022 Metal Hammer interview.
Blackbraid incorporate folk elements into their music, as Sgah’gahsowáh explained. “People are bored of a lot of the black metal tropes out there right now,” he said. “When it comes to Scandinavian black metal, I’m the biggest fan there is. But there comes a point in my mind where the dark, mediaeval type of black metal has just been done so much. It’s impossible for bands to make an album in that genre and not sound like all the rest.”
Blackbraid will tour mainland Europe in October, with dates announced for the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Tickets to the shows are now available.
I were a Norwegian black metal supergroup started in 2003. Their ranks included then-Immortal frontman Abbath, Enslaved guitarist Arve “Ice Dale” Isdal and then-Gorgoroth bassist TC King. They released one album, Between Two Worlds, in 2006 then deactivated later that year, due to members’ commitments to their other bands.
Abbath started a solo career after his Immortal exit in 2015. King appeared on the musician’s self-titled debut solo album, released in 2016.
