Ildjarn- Minnesjord (1994)

Ildjarn’s fourth demo and fifth release overall, Minnesjord, is a classic example of what this one man band is all about. The demo contains seven short jolts of buzz-saw riffage and militantly precise percussion. The songs all basically follow the same formula. A sharp riff is repeated for one to two minutes to the unchanging beat of Ildjarn’s exact percussion. There is usually a tiny bit of variation within the riff, but Ildjarn predominately sticks with one progression. The vocals are what one would expect from Ildjarn—harsh, dry and hateful. While some of the other recordings employ undistorted bass, the bass on Minnesjord has distortion, which results in a slightly less dynamic sound overall.

The riffs on Minnesjord are solid, but none of them are truly riveting in the way that the ones on Norse or Strength and Anger are. Still, the demo moves along steadily and the riffs are captivating enough to sustain the short song lengths. There is one unusual song on the demo. “Dalens äno (Avslutning)” is actually a brief acoustic piece for bass and sounds more like something one would find on a jazz recording than a black metal demo. The song doesn’t quite fit in, but it does sound good, though at 48 seconds it is too short.

While Minnesjord is not one of the highlights of Ildjarn’s discography, it provides a solid and quick fix of what Ildjarn fans of his know and love. If you’re a fan of Ildjarn’s more famous releases this demo is worth a few listens.  

Overall: 7.5/10