California musician Beau James Wilding is stepping into darker territory with the debut album “A Wicked Huntsman,” a folk project that blends traditional instrumentation with elements of punk, doom and metal while exploring trauma, mortality and personal transformation.

Released under the name Food for the Wyrm, the eight-track album draws from Irish folk traditions and experimental drone textures, combining original songs with reimagined traditional pieces and reinterpretations of songs from the folk canon.

Wilding, a California-based singer-songwriter, described the project as “a psychic exploration and a passionate quest to turn fear into growth, dread into excitement and practice acceptance of the wisdom of the dark depths of the unconscious.”

The album centers on six core tracks, each symbolized by a flower native to the Irish countryside and tied to a traumatic life experience, including betrayal, loss, shame, cruelty, addiction and ignorance. The concept artwork was created by Norwegian artist Zein Hestnaes.

While rooted in folk music, “A Wicked Huntsman” pushes beyond traditional arrangements. Acoustic instrumentation is layered with distorted electric guitar, synthesizers and drone passages that create a heavier, more atmospheric sound.

“This is a folk record with punk and metal energies driving it forward, interpolated by psychedelic and doomful drone landscapes,” promotional materials for the release state.

The album includes three original compositions, three reinterpreted traditional songs and two covers that Wilding modified and rearranged to fit the project’s darker aesthetic. According to the release notes, the music aims “to bring darkness into the light, to transcend trauma to find clarity and purpose on the other side.”

The project was first recorded during the summer of 2024 at Analogue Catalogue Studios in rural Ireland with collaborators “Irish” Tom on bodhran and shruti box and Frank Martian on electric guitar and synthesizer. Final overdubs and mixing later took place at Castaway 7 Studios in Ventura, California.

The name Food for the Wyrm reflects the project’s recurring themes of death and impermanence.

“We will all become food for the wyrm,” the project description states. “She waits in silent darkness to devour us all. Death is certain, only the time of death is not known. The clock is ticking, don’t waste your time, don’t waste your life.”

The album arrives as artists across folk and alternative music continue blending traditional song structures with heavier and more experimental influences, creating crossover spaces between folk storytelling, metal atmospherics and ambient sound design.

“A Wicked Huntsman” is now available on major streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music.

More information about the project is available through Food for the Wyrm and the project’s Instagram page.