Category: news

Tyondai Braxton used to be the frontman of the experimental rock icons Battles, but he’s kept up a busy and prolific solo career since his departure in 2010. His most recent solo album Telekinesis — his orchestral piece that also included electric guitars, electronics, and a choir — arrived in 2022, and today he’s announced…

The post Tyondai Braxton Announces New Album <em>Splayed Werks</em>: Hear Two Singles appeared first on Stereogum.

Hunter As a Horse (HAAH) is the South African musician and vocalist Mia van Wyk. Based in the Western

The post Interia Announce First Ever UK Shows appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

Where they from?
Portland, OR. I made 40 bucks gambling on baseball parlays this weekend. Turns out if you take just 15 minutes to do research (ask ChatGPT) you can formulate a perfect lineup to maximize home run potential. Yes, I’m 36 and don’t have a girlfriend, why do you ask?

Why the hype?
This band first came onto our radar last year with an exceptional demo and lo and behold they have graced the world with a debut full-length that is nothing short of being an utter masterclass of chaotic grind warfare. Imagine all the technicality of Defeated Sanity but truncated into the hyper blast spazziness of Mellow Harsher or Sulfuric Cautery and you get a picture of what this band does so well. Also, no Spotify or even Instagram, so you know these guys MEAN FUCKING BUSINESS!

Latest Release?
Decrepitizing Din of the Cerebral Psyopticon, out now on Iron Lung Records. I know I often say an album is a shoo-in for my best-of end-of-year list but this one goes a step further. It’s pretty much up there with “grind album of the decade” until otherwise. Thirty minutes of only the most obscene blasting cacophony. Albums and bands like this are why I fell in love with the genre in the first place.

The post Blast Worship: Fake Dust appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Earlier this year, Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster reached a surprise settlement with the Justice Department in a major antitrust case — a deal President Donald Trump reportedly pushed for, to the dismay of his ally Kid Rock, who has pushed hard for regulatory action against the company. The agreement avoided a breakup of Live Nation/Ticketmaster, even after a federal jury later found the company to be an illegal monopoly in a separate lawsuit brought by dozens of states.

The post The Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay Testifies Before Congress About Live Nation Monopoly appeared first on Stereogum.

Posted on May 19th 2026, 2:35p.m.

Contrary to what one might assume, the word wergild has nothing to do with a society of werewolves, however fitting that might sound in a black metal context. Even its literal translation from Old English—man-price—suggests a bounty of some sort, but the term’s true meaning is far more nuanced. One dictionary defines it as  “the value set in Anglo-Saxon and Germanic law upon human life in accordance with rank and paid as compensation to the kindred or lord of a slain person.” Thus, wergild was not indicative of savagery but dignity: base impulses tempered by a rudimentary code of law that sought to deter further bloodshed. According to one scholar, to offer or accept wergild was to maintain one’s honor. 

The term took on new meaning in 2023 when Wergild, a black metal collective and record label, began operating out of Washington state. The group—or “enclave,” as it identifies on its Bandcamp page—quickly garnered a cultlike following in the underground metal community. Perhaps the most notable artist on Wergild’s roster is Iron Firmament, whose latest album In the Land of Pre-Human Kings released in March. Like much of Wergild’s output, physical copies were in high demand. LP pre-orders opened in December and sold out within half an hour. Subsequent batches lasted minutes. One could cynically argue that the label’s popularity is inextricably tied to its fans’ “fear of missing out,” but this argument is somewhat undercut by the fact that all Wergild releases are available as inexpensive downloads (or free ones, if one is quick enough to use one of the dozens of codes posted with each release). As of this writing, the entire digital discography can be purchased for under $20. 

In any case, Iron Firmament is only the tip of the Wergild iceberg. Over the first three years of its existence, the label has been home to at least ten other projects, many of which involve the same two or three musicians in different configurations. This only becomes apparent when exploring their catalog, as Wergild keeps its operations fairly quiet. As previously mentioned, the individual bands are subject to varying degrees of online hype and word-of-mouth buzz, especially now that Wergild has collaborated with several other boutique labels such as Vermignosis, Phantom Lure, and Poisonous Sorcery, but Wergild itself has zero social media presence outside of their Bandcamp community page. As such, information about them is notoriously difficult to nail down.

I have followed Wergild since its 2023 launch (technically before then, but more on that later). However, I cannot claim any special knowledge or insight into their operations. I briefly chatted with some of the individuals involved when Iron Firmament toured the American Northeast last month, but they politely declined my offer of a formal interview. Thus, all of the information contained herein has been gleaned from the official Wergild website, Bandcamp, and liner notes. I will also do my best to refer to all Wergild members by their chosen pseudonyms, even if some of their identities can be uncovered with a bit of digging. 

With those brief disclaimers out of the way, we embark upon a brief, unofficial history of the Wergild collective—the ascendant kings of the Cascadian metal scene.

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Our tale begins in 2022 with Pseudocorp, a now-dormant Californian tape label specializing in raw black metal and dark, offbeat electronica. Readers of this site might recognize names like Fugitive Wizard and Old Nick from their roster—two mainstays of the post-pandemic dungeon synth and raw black metal scene—but other notable projects included the moody cyberpunk techno of Weaponator, the skittery breakbeats of Coracle and Interplan West, and the galloping metal-infused chiptune of Castle Turing. 

One of Pseudocorp’s final releases before its current hiatus was Iron Firmament’s debut EP Keepeater, an unassuming five-track recording positioned at the crossroads between second-wave Norwegian black metal and the misty atmosphere of the early 00’s Cascadian scene—that is to say, it was right up my alley. I featured Keepeater in my semi-monthly column on this very website, but at the time, I failed to notice that the EP was recorded at the same place (and/or by the same people) associated with early Fugitive Wizard releases: “The Scriptorium.” Black metal and pseudonyms go hand and hand, so this indicated that Iron Firmament and Fugitive Wizard were, at the very least, associates, if not collaborators. Little did I know that this common thread would soon lead both bands into a brand new venture.

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Three months passed, and as 2023 came to a close, Pseudocorp announced on Bandcamp that “The Scriptorium is no more. Its membership has driven north to form the new raw black metal enclave WERGILD […] This is the new home of Fugitive Wizard and Iron Firmament. There’s new works [sic] there already, and many more to come.” Sure enough, the third EP in Fugitive Wizard’s Ultima Magus series, a second EP from Iron Firmament titled Empyrean Blood, and the debut split from two new atmospheric black metal groups–Lander and Unkindness–had been posted earlier that day. The latter release was made even more fascinating by the revelation that the entire split was the work of two people. The Lander side of the EP credited someone called Artificer on guitars, synths, and vocals, and Krieger on drums; these roles were reversed for the Unkindness half on side B. It was unclear at the time if these were members of Fugitive Wizard and/or Iron Firmament operating under different names or if they were new members of the collective. To make matters more interesting, all three of these inaugural Wergild releases were recorded in a “dungeonous lair” dubbed The Illusory Wall, no doubt the successor to the aforementioned Scriptorium. Was something brewing behind this magical barrier, or was I just failing a Perception check? 

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It turned out the answer to both of these questions was ‘yes,’ as a deluge of new material soon followed, all before the end of the year: a cold, cosmic black metal project from Krieger called Tatterdemalion, Fugitive Wizard’s Ultima Magus Chapter IV, and the first full-length from Iron Firmament, whose liner notes finally included the band members’ aliases. Up until this point, Iron Firmament had operated in total anonymity, but this self-titled record revealed the involvement of the now-familiar Krieger and a “new” figure named C.S.Z. who was (follow me here) connected to Pseudocorp by way of an ambient IDM demo that he released through an associated collective called Midgator Music. A smoking gun, this wasn’t, but it was yet another glimpse into Wergild’s formation and the connections between its pseudonymous members.

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2024 would be an incredibly prolific year for the burgeoning collective—15 releases from a steadily expanding constellation of projects that began with what Krieger dubbed their “Tactics Arc.” Iron Firmament put out their second album of belligerent sword and sorcery, the appropriately titled Cascadian Tactics, flanked by a pair of EPs like Ares charging into battle with Phobos and Deimos by his side. Fugitive Wizard reimagined and rerecorded much of their early material for the compilation album Apocrypha, bringing the past in line with their current (fuller) sound. Rounding out the OG Wergild lineup, a somewhat self-titled album and an EP from Unkindness pressed further into grim, nihilistic territory, while its sister project Lander charted a militaristic sci-fi universe with an EP of their own and a debut full-length called Boreal Tactics. 

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That year also saw a proliferation of Wergild solo acts and outside collaborations. Artificer put out a lush atmospheric black metal demo as Flameskull, which remains the only material released under that name as of this writing. Krieger released a second Tatterdemalion EP, the epic and otherworldly Carrier, while also branching out into two new bands. First, he returned to the catacombs of California (that isn’t fanciful metaphor—check the liner notes) to join forces with entities known as Thresher and Figment, with whom he formed Parthenoid; that project’s haunting catacombs 2024 demo was unique among Wergild’s output due to the fact that all three members performed vocals, raging against the dying of the light with ragged snarls, icy howls, and even ghostly chants. Krieger also allied himself with S.C. from Ebony Pendant to form Runeblade, whose En Garde demo closed out the year by introducing its own brand of naked aggression and eerie mysticism to the collective.

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In comparison to the whirlwind year that preceded it, 2025 was relatively quiet. A new Parthenoid demo, The War for Earth, arrived in late February followed closely by the label’s first release outside of the Wergild collective proper: a split between Occult Blood and Carrion Bloom, two bands that Iron Firmament would tour alongside later that year. Those shows were accompanied by a compilation that announced the beginning of the label’s “Terminus Arc” with selections from upcoming albums and EPs. One interesting inclusion was a track from a new project called Astral Gauze. This would later turn out to be another collaboration between Krieger and Ebony Pendant’s S.C., but this time their roles would be reversed: S.C. handled drums, while Krieger was on guitar and vocals. The group’s debut album A Fire as Alien as Hostile was true to its name, aglow with nebulous synths and riffs that could sear the horizon like a solar flare or freeze into clouds of crystalline shards. For good measure, they released another Runeblade demo on the same day, along with the third Tatterdemalion album.

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As Wergild began to slow its relentless pace, several of its founding members branched out into—or perhaps returned to—the world of electronic music. Artificer launched an ambient label called Lost Worlds and released his first demo as Earendel in the summer of 2025. CSZ and Krieger soon followed that November as Greenstar and Prodigies of Krieg, respectively. Though much of their black metal output features synth interludes between or within songs, Lost Worlds nonetheless serves as an ethereal and hypnotic parallel to their work with Weregild. 

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This brings us to 2026, the first four months of which suggest that the label is doubling down on their strengths and reinforcing the bonds that connect their members. Iron Firmament put out their third album, the aforementioned In the Land of Pre-Human Kings. It is a triumphant distillation of the band’s sweeping atmospheric black metal and yet another high water mark for the collective. With ItLoPHK, Artificer officially joined the band on bass after several years in the live lineup, bringing the Venn diagram of Wergild founders closer to a full circle (though Fugitive Wizard still seems to operate independently from most of the other projects). 

Then, in late April, the Ebony Pendant connection was further sealed when Wergild handled the vinyl and cassette versions of Threnodies from the Coldlands following the album’s digital release last November. Threnodies came three years after its predecessor, and the minor controversy regarding the label involved, whose name, if pronounced in a certain way, could be synonymous with “butt bellow”. S.C has since disavowed any connection with this individual and will presumably continue to release solo material under the Wergild banner in addition to his collaborations with Krieger.

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Thus far, Wergild’s “Terminus Arc” has been its most ambitious yet, though if the track listing of last year’s compilation can be trusted, there is more to come from Fugitive Wizard, Lander, and Unkindness—and soon. However, as we ponder the future of Wergild, it would be fitting to reconsider the title of that compilation. It is likely that “Terminus” is not an indication of Wergild’s impending closure (or so we should hope) but a reference to the Roman god of boundaries, whose annual festival celebrated the end of the calendar year. Terminus could be symbolized by stones or stumps: any sort of demarcation between this and that, here and there. His motto, concedo nulli, declares that he “yields to none”.

“Terminus” is a fitting title for Wergild’s latest chapter but also a deeply ironic one. On the one hand is the literal transition from one phase to the next. There is also some shared ground between the physical symbolism of Terminalia and Wergild’s Anglo-Saxon namesake—the “man-price” payable as recompense for an unlawful killing. Lines must be drawn and agreements must be honored. Otherwise, what would distinguish us from mere beasts?

But as an “enclave” of musicians, Wergild continually defies boundaries from within. The collective operates at its own pace, beholden to no one but itself. It is much more than the sum of its constituent projects, whose members continually reinvent themselves as they challenge and complement one another. Each new release speaks for its creators and the collective as a whole. Such is the combined might of Wergild. Long may it reign. 

Emerging alternative heavy artist MADiSON ViOLETT returns with her explosive new single “BLEED FOR ME,” featuring Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens. The track marks a

Emerging from the depths of Southern California’s underground, I WILL DESTROY YOU announce the May 29th release of their debut EP, Dead Before

Have you ever seen yourself out of the corner of your eye? It’s disorienting. This happened to me during Turnstile’s headlining set on the first night of Kilby Block Party, the indie-ish Salt Lake City music festival that lives up to its word-of-mouth reputation. These days, a Turnstile live show is a production, one befitting a real-deal festival headliner. The people in the band are all charismatic human whirlwinds who carry themselves like athletes, but they know that they’re not the real show. The real show is the crowd — the roiling oceans of people that go the fuck off whenever Turnstile touch the stage.

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