Ironworks is a fitting title for this release as it was recorded in a 19th century blacksmith shop, allegedly where some of Bjella’s own ancestors toiled. Ironworks offers 6 tracks of cold grinding mechanical gears, processed guitar drone, amplified junk destruction, piano work, and hollow vocal distillation; as channeled through the proletarian ghosts still haunting the site of the recording session. The synthesization of these various approaches are best exemplified in the opening track 1870-1906. It’s an interplay of churning industrial machinery and blackened ambient guitar drone. The track takes an interesting turn, as the noise fades into somber piano playing, but eventually reemerges to intertwine the varied sounds. Tasks Which Destroy Body And Soul and God Says To Love You in Chains really highlight Bjella’s guitar and vocal work. The former showcasing some menacing, cold, distant vocals and some challenging guitar fuckery. The latter seeming to capture the essence of some majestic viking metal without the slightest trace of corpse paint. Well there is some grim, black metal-esque vocals moving in the background. Cold and sinister.
 

In the penultimate track Into Her, She Carved The Word Empty dredges some deep crust of the earth noise. Think shifting tectonic plates, crumbling crust, and magma spurting through the earth’s surface. At times it almost verges on a crusty take on swelling, elemental wall noise akin to Nascitari or Carrion Black Pit. Another instance where Bjella manages to capture the “essence” of a genre without directly referencing it in sound. About a third of the way into the track some chaotic static adds an extra layer of hellfire and brimstone. The disc’s last track I Draw My Strength From You is a final exercise in atmospheric doom and gloom channeled through a metallic echo chamber. Dark and unsettling, with some metal clanging and other sound waves resonating through junk scrap cracks and crevices.
 

A deeply engrossing album of cold, menacing sounds channeled through the ghosts of those who toiled in the service of industrial capitalism. Should appeal to those who revel in dark soundscapes and bleak music. Highly recommended!