Wes Cage
WES CAGE deals in myth, mysticism, and madness, conjuring deep connections with the unseen through the timeless power of primal sounds. Scion of a famous family revered equally for its unapologetic eccentricities and artistic contributions to culture, Weston first carved a path of his own in his teens. Drawn to the occult, animalistic totems, ritual, and noise, he spent his 18th birthday in Norway on a three-day bender with some of the most infamous sons of black metal.
Now a dedicated family man in his early 30s, Cage embarks on a courageous new chapter, creating ambitious hard rock no less lacking in authenticity or edge but designed to connect on a bigger scale. His music is equal parts reflective and inventive, with hooks that resonate with diverse crowds. “The Wolf,” a 2023 standalone single co-written with Keith Wallen of Breaking Benjamin, offers a first taste.
“The music we’re doing is part of my essence and always needed to be released,” he reasons. “Lyrically, ‘The Wolf’ touches on the dichotomy between the higher and lower selves. One represents strength, intelligence, organization, responsibility; the other, destitution, failure, depression, sadness.”
Weston wasn’t always this focused. By his own admission, battles with addiction once saw him digging his own grave. An advocate for recovery who went to the depths of despair and emerged that much stronger, Cage’s music speaks with a wisdom beyond his years, shaped by hardened experience. But even in the darkness, there were glimpses of light as he studied various instruments and philosophies.
Eyes of Noctum, the teenage black metal project he founded under the alias “Arcane,” made an album with New Wave of Swedish Death Metal producer Fredrik Nordström (At The Gates, In Flames, Opeth) in Gothenburg, and toured alongside cult underground bands like Book Of Black Earth and Cattle Decapitation.
Striking out as a solo artist in his early 20s, Cage pioneered a subgenre of his own called “Ghost Metal,” created with a blend of ancient instruments and postmodernism, with the express purpose of inducing chills. Industrial and hard rock collided in his solo debut, 2014’s Prehistoric Technology.
Weston performed vocals, guitar, bass, and keys on Prehistoric Technology, with drums recorded by Chase Brickenden (Thrown Into Exile, Butcher Babies) and, on one track, Tommy Clufetos (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Rob Zombie). Cage took home Best New Artist at the Vegas Rocks! Magazine Music Awards, presented to him by the legendary Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Whitesnake).
The same spiritual hunger that got him reading the poetic Eddur of the Vikings and the Tibetan Book of the Dead sent him to study a multitude of instruments like the Turkish lute popularized in Greece and later adapted in Ireland called the bouzouki. “I only record things that are meaningful to me spiritually,” he explains. “So, when I say I play 12 instruments, it’s more like 13 because my connection with the universe or the divine consciousness – Mother Earth, Father Sky – is my No. 1 instrument.”
As his music evolves, Wes continues to summon a strong connection with his Mediterranean and Nordic ancestry, not unlike some of the formative bands that shaped him, from gateway artists like Rammstein and System Of A Down to more underground groups like Emperor and Darkthrone.
“The commonality between the music I made in the past and what I’m making now is that there’s still a lot of power,” he says. “My favorite thing to channel is music with a powerful epic quality.”
