Album Review: Knogjärn – Bly (Indie Recordings)

Knogjärn deliver an exciting mix of hard rock, melodic metal, hardcore and more on their brand new album, Bly, out on the 24th of January.

Throughout their career, Knogjärn has become known for their unique blend of melodic hard rock and aggressive metalcore. The band has an exceptional ability to balance the brutal with the melodic, giving their songs a depth that appeals to both the mind and the heart. Whether it’s a deafening wall of sound or a more subtle, emotionally charged passage – they ensure that every riff, scream, and beat leaves a lasting impression. The result is an album filled with an explosive mix of raw energy and emotional weight that have earned them a steadily growing base of dedicated fans.

Knogjärn formed in 2015 and Bly is their 6th full length album so these guys have been around the block, and know what they are doing and this time, they are a bit angrier. Bly (Swedish for “lead”) is their heaviest album to date, packed with deliciously brutal metal that tears at both soul and ears. Bly is an album full of contrasts. An album where pounding basslines meet playful guitar riffs, and where the lyrics are infused with a mischievous irony (though unless you speak Swedish, this will be lost on you) while at the same time addressing serious themes such as loneliness, grief, and anger.

In their own words:

“BLY” has no specific lyrical theme or concept, but the band has drawn inspiration from contemporary tragedies and conflicts, personal experiences, and – not least – humanity’s boundless stupidity.”

Knogjärn is Kim Eriksson on vocals, Markus Hurtig on guitar, Rasmus Sörbom on bass and Johan Hidén on drums.

Bly delivers 12 tracks and near 40 minutes of genre bending metal starting with Sluta tro på allt. As an introduction to the band for newcomers like myself, it sets the scene nicely getting straight into it. Leading guitars, a shout and a chunk of bass hit you instantly with a very catchy rhythm. The drums are great and the verse vocals have a harsh “core” edge to them but still have clarity which is great. The chorus brings a bit more of the hard rock edge, keeping the catchiness in the drums and bass but bringing clean vocals with harsh backing. The mixing back and forth between the more metalcore sounds and style, and the cleaner hard rock catchiness works well and is helped by the ability of the vocalist, Kim Eriksson, to deliver these styles faultlessly.

I also really appreciate the songs being sung in their native Swedish – it adds a lot.

Obviously a band mixing between metalcore and rock are going to end up touching on surrounding genres and Knogjärn  certainly do that. Bly eller pengar has a bit of a “nu metal” vibe especially in it’s chorus where the vocals get dangerously close to being rap in style, then delivering a simplistic chorus shouting the title in harsh vocals. All of that is backed by booming drum blasts and crunchy metallic riffing though which keeps you engaged and your head moving. Farväl has a fiery pace to it and I can’t say enough positives about these vocals which here transition between harsh and clean so gorgeously that you don’t even really notice the style has switched. The drums are fire, again and I like the prominence of the bass. This is a good track with great energy.

Hoppas inte du fryser sees Knogjärn continue to deliver a wide spectrum of rock and metal with a real mix of a track that starts acoustic, turns into a core banger, then into a melodic piece with spoken word, then back into a hardcore track. All of that is before the first verse ends and we hit a more sing along hard rock chorus, if you speak Swedish of course. It’s mental really, but also really interesting, different and engaging.

Bly continues with Bara gör det. A track that brings slamming groove in it’s intro then continues on the slamming heaviness into a hard as hell verse that will fire up mosh pits. The chorus teases like it is is going full clean but just delivers a couple lines before going back into the harsh arena. It’s probably the most straight up blast of heaviness on Bly so far, in a good way, and coming at a good time.

Ingen Kommer In is a short, high energy track that keeps it heavy and delivers a bit of punk attitude in it’s rolling rhythms and shouted lines. The chorus is great and it just flows so well, perfectly slotting into this eclectic and exciting album. Min stad, the longest track on the album, sees Knogjärn go heavy on the groove and rhythm. Hard and heavy groove with a core edge hits hard through the intro and verses. The choruses stay heavy with some excellent lead guitar work standing out. It’s just a really comfortable listen with a punchy rhythm that makes you tap your foot and bang your head. It’s good music.

Smörbultad is just a 40 second long blast in the style of American cross over thrash, but still cool and well positioned in the album. Inget lever länge här and Rädd för dig are the next two tracks and both keep the quality of Bly high. Both songs sit in what appears to be Knogjärn’s foundation style. The most common one in amongst the many styles they dip in to. Hard and heavy core verses with cleaner choruses, then just tweaking the intensity of each style to add variety. The former delivering heavy as hell riffs and exceptional drum blasts, also sitting on the heavier side with some powerful growls and roars. The latter, similar but with a quicker pace and cleaner chorus before going hard for a very heavy breakdown.

The penultimate track is Tror du vill brinna and sees those creative muscles flex again bringing a thick and dark bass line but with cleaner shouted vocals over the top. They have some menace though, especially as they build towards the choruses where they transition to harsh vocals. A nice melodic switch sees some isolated clean vocals that sound great. It all comes back together for a pretty epic sound with powerful drum blasts, soaring leads, clean vocals and backing. This is a top song, and one of my favourite on this very strong album.

So we reach the end with Kärleken väntar and of course Knogjärn make sure Bly ends as it started delivering a catchy as hell song with plenty of creativity on offer. It’s a much cleaner song overall, despite still having a crunchy foundation of drums, bass and riffs. Vocal styles, and the backing vocals create a nice harmonised sound with a much more rock vibe but it is immeasurably listenable and has real feeling. It’s a wonderfully fitting way to close out what has been a really impressive and slightly eccentric album.

There is such a wide mix of music on Bly, that on the face of it, you could be forgiven for worrying that it won’t flow but it actually does, really well. I think it is helped by having a foundation sound that stays prominent through most of the record, groove based core intro and verses with melodic metal choruses. Then they build off of that in different ways in each song, sometimes towards a more metalcore sound, sometimes towards deathcore, sometimes hard rock, sometimes even nu-metal and sometimes all of it at once. It keeps things fresh, keeps it exciting and when you chuck in the superbly talented vocalist, you end up with a really strong album that should have mass appeal.

Track List:

01. Sluta tro på allt
02. Bly eller pengar
03. Farväl
04. Hoppas inte du fryser
05. Bara gör det
06. Ingen Kommer In
07. Min stad
08. Smörbultad
09. Inget lever länge här
10. Rädd för dig
11. Tror du vill brinna
12. Kärleken väntar

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