Seattle/Long Beach doom and drone metal project. The minimalist name matches their approach — glacially paced, frequency-obsessed heaviness that operates at the outer reaches of metal's slowest subgenre.

Author & Punisher is the solo industrial doom and drone metal project of San Diego-based mechanical engineer Tristan Shone, active since 2004. Shone performs entirely on custom-fabricated machines and controllers called Drone Machines, devices that grew out of his masters thesis at the University of California, San Diego, and which draw directly from industrial robotics and automation. His catalog includes numerous releases on Relapse Records, with Nocturnal Birding arriving in October 2025 and marking the first time a second full bandmember, guitarist Doug Sabolick, has joined the project.