Text by: Stephanie Souza
Audacity would be a good word to define the Swedish post-hardcore band Refused . Innovation, intensity, and ideals go hand in hand on the album The Shape of Punk to Come , released in 1998 by Burning Heart Records. The album breaks Jurassic conventions of the genre by incorporating elements of electronic music, jazz, and post-hardcore into a great experimental mix, which also doesn't fall short in heaviness and socio-political critique, the central theme of the work.
The album's opening tracks, "Worm of the Senses / Faculties of the Skull" and "Liberation Frequency," create the perfect fusion of chaos, political expression, screams, and heavy instrumental power. "The Deadly Rhythm" plays with one of the album's many genre influences, using elements of jazz amidst the powerful drumming of David Sandstrom . "Summerholidays Vs. Punkroutine" creates a lyrical dichotomy between a domesticated and conformist life versus the rebellious and political spirit of punk rock.
“Bruitist Pome #5” is an electronic interlude that builds anticipation until the explosion of “New Noise,” a classic and definitive anthem of the reinvention that the album proposes to achieve. The song alternates electronic passages with dramatic pauses and a great sense of urgency that begins from the moment the vocalist etches “Can I scream?” into the listeners' memory. The idea here is to break with the aesthetic and ideological sameness in a scene that had become predictable in everything it set out to create.
Written under the influence of a strong anti-capitalist spirit ( Dennis Lyxzen , the vocalist, has defined himself as a socialist several times in different interviews), songs like "The Refused Party Program" and "Protest Song 68" construct critiques of the current system while also evoking a sense of manifesto and direct action. This manifesto is expressed here in a completely cohesive but also sonically unpredictable way.
It could be said that “Refused Are Fucking Dead” served as a foreshadowing of the band's abrupt end, which would happen months after the release of this album – which had a lukewarm reception in its first months. TSOPTC only came years after the band's end, when the music video for “New Noise” began airing on MTV, attracting a new audience that was finally ready to understand and embrace the group's creative dimension. While the sonic hybridity seemed out of place for both punk rock and the mainstream in the 90s, in the 2000s it became clear that the band not only created something unique and original, but also anticipated trends in a visionary way, influencing bands like Linkin Park , Anthrax , and Paramore .
The belated recognition of Refused helps reinforce the embryonic mystique surrounding the band, which creatively challenged itself to breathe new life into a genre that urgently needed renewal. Always ahead of its time, what was once rejected now earns cult status, becoming one of the most important albums in the hardcore scene of the last 30 years.
In a final farewell to the stage scheduled for 2025, Refused comes to Brazil for a single show on October 31st at Terra SP in São Paulo. The tour, ironically (or not) named Refused Are Fking Dead – And This Time They Really Mean It, is a unique opportunity to experience all the incendiary and chaotic energy of the band. The event is presented by Powerline Music & Books in partnership with Balaclava Records.
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