Album Review: Järnbörd - Filmer för blinda
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Formed in Sweden back in 2015 by singer / guitarist Anders Schärberg, Järnbörd – meaning Ordeal by Fire – released their first material in 2017 and have been increasingly prolific in the years after the world switched back on. Six of their seven recognised releases coming since 2021, up to last year’s splits with Fading Trail, Horornisdiphonevalley and Abanglupa.
The celebrate their decade of musical devastation, Järnbörd release a new album, the ten track Filmer för Blinda – or Movies for the Blind – which the band admit to having been working on for the previous four years, in order to fully explore the limits of what the band see as being Grindcore.
Starting with Gärning Och Lidande, Järnbörd begin by offering a control piece, one that we can all agree is a solid grind composition. Blitzkrieg drums, grinding guitar and Napalm-style barks, all packaged in a relentless charge lays down the blueprint of how Grind is made. Then they start to twist things, little by little.
Ormens Väg På Kvarnberget starts to groove from the outset and the vocals are initially spoken, rather than spat; it’s a combination of fast, grinding intensity and slow, pummelling moments. Later, both Okomplicerad and Nu kör vi pick up the torch and bring us back to the beginning’s more traditionally accepted definition of the genre, the latter song closing and, therefore, bookending the album.
Before we get to that point, Järnbörd have such sights to show us. Rockens Heraldik opens with what sounds like 8-bit beeps, prior to finding a grooving bassline and a near-melodic vocal, dissonant sounds and the slow pace adding to the industrial vibes. Dött Format takes the industrial into a different direction, surrounding it with blasts before it breaks down into the machine-like.
The band are joined by a number of guests across Filmer för Blinda. The slow and doom-laden Rockar med Mammon begins with a frenzied guitar competing with a tolling drum line, then develops into an earworm of a grooving riff with a distinctly punk influence, finds Gamla Pengar and The Dahmers man, Mikey Lennartsson wheezing lines about listening Slayer; and for all of Vi ska ätas, vi ska dömas’ classic rock opening and modern sound, techno artist Johanna Knutsson can be heard giving the tune an unmissable hardcore edge.
A cover of Björn Afzelius’ Flickan i snön is the album’s longest song and finds Järnbörd building a doomy riff from a folk opening; it’s an intoxicating change of direction as the song uses repetition and a growing esotericism to evoke the spiritual, morphing into a hardcore punk anthem for its closing quarter. Abley abetted by Dead Sleep and Iron Pike bassist, Anna Wagner, this cover most adequately demonstrates Järnbörd ’s wish to explore all the colours of their musical palette.
As for the title-track itself – it spends a little over three minutes of skipping beats, fat basslines and sharp guitar tones to create a foot-tapping exploration of what it means to be Human. Encompassing ideas of helplessness, joy, sadness, anger, fatigue, love, friendship and hatred. It’s a bold ambition for which Järnbörd should be la uded.
2025 has certainly got itself off to a flying start.
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