Amid their ongoing farewell tour, Refused recently revealed that the group’s members had plans to continue on together in a new venture outside of the confines set upon the highly influential post-hardcore band. Speaking of that in this October 2025 statement, Refused‘s drummer David Sandström stated:
“A new band has been born within the band and we (Mattias, Magnus, Dennis and me) want to explore that, a band with no baggage, no fans to please, limited only by our wildest musical hopes and dreams. We’re very excited about getting around to taming this new wild beast.”
Now here’s where some confusion picks up, back in 2023, a ‘death jazz’ side project by the name of Backengrillen was formed. Refused‘s vocalist Dennis Lyxzén and bassist Magnus Flagge join Sandström in that venture, which is completed by jazz saxophonist/flautist Mats Gustafsson.
A self-titled debut album from that project is now headed for a January 23rd release on Svart Records, with the band themselves stating this month:
“Backengrillens music is a paean to chaos and destruction. 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. It’s filled to the brim with the self-hatred endemic to the province of Västerbotten from whence the member’s hail. The record was written on a Thursday during their first ever rehearsal, performed live on a Friday and recorded on a Saturday, so what you’re hearing is raw, stupid, gut instinct music played by seasoned purveyors of hardcore punk, metal, free jazz, noise et cetera.
Record no 2 is in the making, less stupid, more ugly. Stay tuned and fuck the pigs.”
A press release further described the project as:
‘Antifascist, antiracists free form death – jazz – in the memory of Lars Lystedt – Backengrillen arrives with new perspectives on jazz. And punk. In-your-face HC jazz inspired by The Cramps, Little Richard, Albert Ayler, Polly Bradfield, Entombed, John Zorn, Misfits, Stooges, Lars Gullin, Can and much more.’
While some may assume that this project is what Sandström referred to above, Refused guitarist Mattias Bärjed is not involved per new press materials. In fact, in a follow-up comment made by Lyxzén, there’s no set guitarist for Backengrillen. However that all shakes out, Backengrillen‘s new track “A Hate Inferior” is now streaming below, with pre-orders for the record available at svartrecords.com.
