17 MAY 28-JUNE 3, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | FIND MORE MUSIC COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/MUSIC American Gothic WAYFARER LOOKS BACK ONE LAST TIME BEFORE MARCHING FORWARD. BY JUSTIN CRIADO Wayfarer is marking the end of an era. While the Americana black metallers haven’t announced any defi nitive plans for what comes next, guitarist-vocalist Shane McCarthy sees their current tour as a good opportunity to refl ect on the Denver band’s fi fteen-year career so far. “We’re not ready to talk about it much. At this moment, we’re focused on seeing this off in a good way with this tour,” he says. “Try- ing to do a little bit of retrospective on it. As soon as this is done, it’ll be about building up what’s next.” Wayfarer is now on tour with Finnish psychedelic black metal group Oranssi Pa- zuzu, which included a hometown show at Bluebird Theater this month. McCarthy, drummer Isaac Faulk, bass- ist Jamie Hansen and guitarist Joe Strong- Truscelli are still focused on “American Gothic,” the rock-solid 2023 album that’s full of blackened, Dust Bowl-era ballads. Each of the four-piece’s fi ve albums was inspired by different time periods across the American West, particularly Colorado, an approach that defi nes Wayfarer’s signature style of extreme metal paired with gothic brooding. And now feels like the right time to celebrate everything Wayfarer’s built up until this point. “With this specifi c chapter of the ca- reer, we’ve reached an apex with “American Gothic,” in terms of what it is we’re trying to say with the music. Therefore, we’re going to branch that out into a new direction,” McCarthy says. “For what we’re trying to do public-fac- ing, it’s a diffi cult tightrope to walk because we’re being annoyingly coy about it,” he adds. “It’s more like if you like the stuff we’ve been doing — “American Gothic,” “A Romance with Violence,” “World’s Blood” — come see these shows because it’s going to be the culmination of all that. Who’s to say when we’ll be doing that stuff again?” So Wayfarer isn’t necessarily going any- where anytime soon, which is good news, but the next step is anyone’s guess ... including the band’s. “It’s all up in the air, in truth, but also it’s more we’re focused on this right now because we want to give it its time in the sun before we move on,” McCarthy says. “We’re the type of band that we’re not just trying to exist in a very traditional subgenre of metal, like playing straight-up black metal or death metal. What we’re doing is trying to put a Colorado stamp on things. We’re try- ing to make something that is metal and make something that’s our own take. We’re trying to redefi ne the boxes of these things.” For more than a decade, Wayfarer has been at the forefront of the resurgent Denver metal scene, alongside such bands as Blood In- cantation (Faulk drums for that group, too) and Primitive Man, which has become known for new levels of extremity. McCarthy, Faulk and Hansen also play in lo- cal symphonic black- metal outfi t Stormkeep, which recently an- nounced its sophomore album, “The Nocturnes of Iswylm,” set for re- lease June 12 via Ger- man label Vesperian. “For that band, it’s already somehow been fi ve years since we’ve done one,” McCarthy shares. “It’s less of a consistent live act, but we will do something at some point.” That’s more good news for metalheads, as Stormkeep’s 2021 debut, “Tales of Other- time,” caught the attention of many in the un- derground with its melodramatic mix of epic wizardry, odes to dragons and ominous amu- lets, all set to medieval metal and dungeon synth. The album helped Stormkeep nab Westword’s blessing of Best Breakthrough Metal Band in 2022. But since then, the camp’s kept quiet, aside from sharing instrumental EP Lost Rel- ics in 2023, for good reason, with Wayfarer and Blood Incantation blowing up. Now, the mages are ready to return. The latest two singles, “Carnal Tapestries of Nailtorn Flesh” and “Imperious Sanguine Eroticism,” see Stormkeep explore more extreme ter- ritory through its top-notch musicianship (think the good shit — Emperor, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir), while maintaining the previously established mystical atmosphere. Stormkeep doesn’t need to worry about a sophomore slump. Plus, the foursome de- buted a new, sword-wielding vampiric look. “It’ll be nice to get this one fi red back up again,” McCarthy says. McCarthy, Faulk and Hansen are band- mates in experimental electro black-death group Lykotonon, too. That band released its fi rst album, “Promethean Pathology,” in 2022, but there’s no word on any more upcoming activity. That’s a lot of crossover between creative endeavors, but McCarthy explains that it’s easier to keep straight than you might as- sume, since each band’s vision is led by a different member — Wayfarer’s is McCarthy, Faulk steers Stormkeep, and Hansen has Lykotonon — allowing the others to assume various roles simultaneously. “We don’t necessarily view them as side projects,” McCarthy says, “because each one is such its own world.” As if he’s not busy enough, McCarthy is also a co-organizer of the annual Fire in the Mountains festival, now in its second year on Montana’s Blackfeet Nation in East Glacier Park from July 23 to July 26. This year’s lineup is absolutely stacked, headlined by the surprise return of post-metal legends Neu- rosis and an exclusive reunion performance by Denver’s own Sixteen Horsepower, the alt-country band that inspired Wayfarer. “Fire in the Mountains is all-consuming right now,” McCarthy says. “It’s exciting. It’s getting more real all the time with all the new artists, second time in a new location.” Originally a small DIY event hosted out- side of Jackson, Wyoming, the fi rst offi cial fest was held in 2018 and has grown in scope and reach ever since, thanks to its initiatives and partnerships with the Blackfeet Nation and Firekeeper Alliance, a mental health and suicide prevention nonprofi t serving Indigenous communities that are impacted by higher suicidal-distress rates nationally than non-reservation locales. “All of that has changed it so much in a positive way,” McCarthy says. “It’s a whirl- wind of change. I feel like we’re always catching up to where it’s at, but it’s super exciting and an honor. It’s about being a part of something. “It’s wild, man,” he adds. “It started so small and self-contained and grassroots, so to be at this point where it is becoming known around the world is pretty insane.” McCarthy is in California with Wayfarer when he takes a moment to talk about ev- erything that’s going on in his world. He’s gracious about sharing such details, but is quick to bring the discussion back to the present, in which he and the band are look- ing back one last time at all they’ve done before marching forward to what lies ahead, whatever that may be. “Musically, we accomplished a lot of what we were trying to accomplish with fl eshing out what the Wayfarer sound is, or at least was, this confl uence of Denver Sound, Americana, Western and extreme metal,” McCarthy says with a wink. “I feel like we can see the arc of the last couple albums more completely, and are on this tour trying to refl ect on that. “We fi nally understand it now,” he con- cludes. “I think it’s very established — what it is, how we work. Knowing what it is, we’re able to push it to new places more confi dently because we know our team and where we want to go.” Email the author at [email protected]. Wayfarer is at the forefront of the Denver metal scene with its unique take on black metal, Americana and the Denver Sound. MUSIC COURTESY FA ALL AWAY
