Three members of Refused have announced a new album from their “free form death-jazz” group Backengrillen alongside prolific Swedish free-jazz saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. The band’s debut album drops in January, though they’ve unveiled the record’s doom-locked opening jam, “A Hate Inferior.”
News of the LP officially arrived late last week, with Svart Records confirming that the band — which comprises Refused members Dennis Lyxzén (vocals), Magnus Flagge (Bass) and David Sandström (drums), along with Gustafsson, and performed live once in 2023 — will release a 5-song, self-titled LP on January 23rd. It can be pre-ordered here.
The Umeå, Sweden-bred foursome wrote in a statement that Backengrillens acts as “a paean to chaos and destruction.” The outfit wrote, rehearsed and recorded the album across a three-day stretch, with the immediacy of the experience apparently producing “raw, stupid, gut instinct music played by seasoned purveyors of hardcore punk, metal, free jazz, noise et cetera.”
With “A Hate Inferior,” the band build up the tension with a psychedelically doomy intro, which eventually crests towards a mix of crashing cymbals, echo-blown screams from Lyxzén and wild honks from Gustafsson. You can stream the song over on Bandcamp.
“The basic idea is to take a death/doom metal, or noiserock riff and play it until it loses meaning and then break it apart like a ravenous cat would a tiny forest mouse,” they wrote, adding of the upcoming LP, “It’s filled to the brim with the self-hatred endemic to the province of Västerbotten from whence the member’s hail.
The music — understandably given the political background of Refused’s music — is also described as anti-fascist and anti-racist, and was inspired by “the Cramps, Little Richard, Albert Ayler, Polly Bradfield, Entombed, John Zorn, Misfits, Stooges, Lars Gullin, Can and much more.”
The band added that a second album is also already in the works.
As previously reported, Refused have spent 2025 performing their final shows. They hit North America earlier this year, and have a handful of Australian and European appearances booked through December, including a final hometown farewell at Umeå’s Väven venue on December 21st. You’ll find the rest of the show details here.
Backengrillen tracklisting:
A Hate Inferior
Dör för långsamt
Repeater II
Backengrillen
Socialism or Barbarism