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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.

The post Kilby Block Party Knows What It’s Doing appeared first on Stereogum.

It is more than exciting to witness the blues music world growing and progressing with so many outstanding young artists and so much sensational new music. Such is the case with Gabe Stillman and his newest release, What Happens Next.

Gabe Stillman was born in 1995 in Williamsport, PA, and began playing guitar at age 8, heavily influenced by popular rock music. He quickly became frustrated and stopped playing until around age 11. He discovered that some of his favorite rock guitarists were influenced by the likes of Eric Clapton, B.B. King, and other blues-oriented musicians, which began to steer him toward blues music. Stillman says, “It (blues music) spoke to me in such a deeper way than the rock music I was listening to.” By age 13, he was playing music live. By age 14, he found himself playing almost every weekend.

Gabe Stillman later began attending the Berklee School of Music in Boston and graduated in 2015. He continued to play and hone his talents, and in 2018 he recorded The Grind, followed by a couple more recording projects. In 2019, Stillman won Gibson’s Best Guitarist award at the 2019 International Blues Challenge. His 2021 album release, Just Say The Word, debuted in the top ten of the Billboard Blues Chart. It was also nominated for Best Emerging Artist Album at the 2022 Blues Music Awards. Bluesman Toronzo Cannon says, “Gabe Stillman has got the chops and the intensity the blues should have. Keep your eye on him.”

If you have any curiosity or doubts about Gabe Stillman’s playing ability, vocal skill, songwriting expertise, and talent, it can all be expunged during the first few moments of What Happens Next, which is also the title track and first track of the album. Not only does he possess superb guitar chops, but he also has a smooth, pleasant vocal presentation. I love the guitar work and tones in this first song, along with the smooth background vocals.

Stillman sings, “Feeling low, something’s gonna blow. Ended up in a place you never want to go. What happens next?” This is a great introduction for the eight exceptional tracks that follow.

“The Man I’m Supposed To Be” kicks off with a little funky intro before some hot solo guitar takes over for an extended lead. “I’m all twisted up now, trying to be this man that she wants me to be.” If you are still asking whether Gabe Stillman can play, the verdict should be rendered with this song. He is a great guitarist. The timeless story of your woman wanting you to be the person she wants you to be, and not the person you are, is what this song is all about. “I know I can’t go on, being the man that she wants me to be.” This song, which is slightly over seven minutes, is destined to be a classic.

The sixth track on What Happens Next is “Screamin’,” and you’ll find it’s one that’s hard to sit still and listen to. It’s best consumed standing up, with your feet moving. Stillman has that guitar cranked up and rolling, with some organ lending solid foundational work. “My baby, she’s so fine; she makes me want to scream,” he sings.

This is also a great time to mention that the musicians on this project are all sensational in their own right, and I never want to overlook great musicianship. Besides Gabe Stillman on guitar and vocals, there is also Alice Spencer (background vocals), Colin Beatty (bass), Eric Roberts (keyboards), Ray Hangen (drums), Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff (saxophone, track 9), and Anson Funderburgh (guitar, track 5).

What Happens Next wraps up with an unusual, but very appealing, selection. It’s a cover of the great John Hartford tune, “Gentle On My Mind,” made famous by Glen Campbell. Your first thought is likely similar to what my first thought was: What in the world is a Glen Campbell song doing on a blues album? My advice: just give it a chance and a listen.

There is some really nice slide work here, as well as an opportunity for some killer saxophone. I love the way the sax and guitar go back and forth with each other at the ending of this classic. I am almost certain that Glen Campbell and John Hartford are smiling down with approval when they hear this soulful cover of their hit. What a nice, sweet way to end this album.

With all the talent surfacing in today’s blues music world, it is hard, sometimes, to keep up with all the names. However, I, and I bet many of you after listening to this album, will find it difficult to forget the name Gabe Stillman. He possesses all the tools and talents needed to become a name recognized and remembered.

As I always do, I recommend trying to catch him live if you’re able. Gabe Stillman will be touring in the U.S. from May through August of this year. So, if possible, catch a show, and if not (or even if you are able), buy some of his music, especially What Happens Next. It’s great!

And lastly, write Gabe Stillman’s name down somewhere, because you’re going to be hearing a lot more about him.

The Review: 9/10

Can’t Miss Tracks

– What Happens Next
– The Man I’m Supposed To Be
– Screamin’
– Gentle On My Mind

The Big Hit

– The Man I’m Supposed To Be

The post Gabe Stillman: What Happens Next Review appeared first on Blues Rock Review.

DICE announce the release of their second album I Thought The Altitude Would Make It Worth The View, set for release

The mysterious young duo ear have not been a band for a long time, but there’s already a whole lot of energy and fascination surrounding the project. The team of Jonah Paz and Yaelle Avtan met and formed at Bard College, and they recorded their 2024 debut track “Nerves” on an iPhone at the college library. They’ve got a whispery, tingly, evocative sound that tends to draw people in. Stereogum contributor Eli Enis has been all over the ear beat on his essential Chasing Fridays newsletter, and he’s referred to the duo as both “laptop twee” and “cloud-rock.” It’s great culty internet music, and we’ll soon learn if it can be something more than that.

The post ear Announce New Album <em>Rumspringa</em> Out Next Week appeared first on Stereogum.

The Barricade Tour kicks off in February

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Original member/bandleader/songwriter/guitarist Edoardo Demuro – Dying Awkward Angel Interviewed by: Anders Sandvall Thanks to Jon Asher – Music Publicist at Asher Media Relations for setting […]

The post Dying Awkward Angel – original member/bandleader/songwriter/guitarist Edoardo Demuro appeared first on Metal-Rules.com.