The Austrian black metal underground is undergoing a renaissance. Gathered around the Födweg label (and its previous incarnation as Voidland Shelter), the local acts have returned to the genre’s raw roots, reforging its original relationship to the punk ethos. Over the years, the scene has evolved further, with their output becoming more nuanced and moving into the post-punk space, as was the case with Peace Vaults’ excellent 2025 EP, Prisoners of Time.
Brånd, the archetypal Födweg act, has been going through a similar process of transformation. Through the mid 2010s, they honed in on a raw black metal character, using animalistic punk energy as their main fuel. Slowly, they transformed into something stranger, with 2019’s Urkraft already showing this punk energy shifting toward post-punk motifs. Their 2022 seminal EP, Wo draht da Weg? continued to pursue this direction, thriving in this dichotomy between lo-fi aesthetics, harsh noise, and an elusive new wave quality. Brånd were clearly looking for a new expression for their black metal side, a way to retain the genre’s aesthetic identity while pushing into a new sonic space. This is now achieved with their debut full-length, Tåg & Nåcht.
At first listen, Brånd’s new record feels like it is breaking away from the black metal aesthetics. The experimental side is stronger here, opening with a krautrock progression filtered through electronica in “Kloare Luft”. The repetitive structures cause a sense of disorientation, a feeling of being lost in the cosmos. Staccato guitar strums and haunting, eerie vocals create a decadent, near-apocalyptic vibe that owes much to off-kilter post-punk acts like Normil Hawaiians. But all these mechanisms are contorted to fit the black metal outlook. Repetition and decadence do not invoke cosmic wonder, but rather cosmic dread—a sensibility embedded in black metal since the Scandinavian scene’s foundation.
Despite the otherworldly component, Brånd reattach themselves to the earthly domain, primarily through their folk aspirations, first appearing through the flute in the opening track. In turn, this moves them closer to the early Death in June sound, where the new wave aesthetic began to melt into neofolk. In “Da Erste Stern”, post-punk structures naturally fold within a oneiric mould, where the ethereal guitar lines collide against a harsher, determined progression.
Similar to their krautrock applications, Brånd’s folk visions carry a darker demeanour than their black metal self. There is a strong tradition of folk-infused black metal that Brånd can invoke, like the early days of Ulver and In the Woods…, but they go for something more adventurous. It is in Isengard that they find a kindred spirit who share their fearless attitude toward vocal delivery in “Dessöwe Oide Leid”. It is the perfect match, a sound deeply rooted in the folk edge of the black metal tradition, but one that pushes toward the weird, not just the experimental.
This is the key for Brånd. Even when Brånd seem furthest removed from black metal, they remain tethered to its underlying sensibility. Despite their endless exploration of genres and sounds, they always circle back to the black metal foundation. Tåg & Nåcht never retreats from that path, even when it is not so obvious. “Ois Bliaht” unearths the anarcho-punk’s extravagant applications, its erratic rhythm taking over. However, the lo-fi character and attitude that ooze out belong much more to black metal’s primal and immediate demeanour.
There is a rich tradition in black metal of bands that step outside the genre’s boundaries, exploring adjacent (or not so adjacent) sounds and bringing them into the fold. That’s not the case with Brånd’s Tåg & Nåcht. They are not interested in sonic collages or amalgamations, but rather in the underlying ethos that radiates from their music, and this is where they succeed. Their debut offers boundless exploration, touching on everything from post-punk and neofolk to electronica and krautrock.
Yet it still shows that it all originated from a black metal mindset. The eerie components infect the krautrock progression, the lo-fi aesthetic steadying the production, and the primal urge to attack lifts the rhythmic structures. In that sense, they are much closer to the likes of Isengard, demo-era Aura Noir, or Ved Buens Ende. That is quite a company to be part of.