Send "Refused " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork. |
![Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombation in 12 Bursts [Deluxe Edition] review](http://www.sweetslyrics.com/poze/refused200.jpg) No band has ever mastered the ominous cymbal tap quite like Refused. On the Swedish hardcore band's final album and masterpiece, David Sandström's shivering tings signal a sort of warning. They usually come right as the band launches from tense, coiled quiet into all-out assault-- or, if they're already in assault mode, from one head-spinning riff to another. Those transitions come up a lot on 1998's The Shape of Punk to Come, and they keep you on your toes. Throughout the record, the band found some platonic ideal of tension-and-release, mutating constantly and pulling in all sorts of vaguely silly genre-leap ideas (chintzy techno beats! jazz breaks!) without altering the fundamental heaviness that they were so great at. It's the sound of a world-class hardcore band deciding that they're done with hardcore, that they want to push their music in all sorts of unexpected directions, and then just ending up with an amazing hardcore album at the end.The Shape of Punk to Come has always been an album with a certain mystique, from the Ornette Coleman/Nation of Ulysses-referencing title (Coleman tweaked the title of a book by H.G. Wells for his LP The Shape of Jazz to Come; NoU first changed that to "punk") to the clouds-gathering whisper of a closing track, "The Apollo Programme Was a Hoax". It's far and away the best thing Refused ever did, and it's also the album that broke Refused up; they could reportedly barely stand each other by the time they got done with the thing. Besides the world-exploding album, Epitaph's new reissue includes all kinds of extras: A furious live album, a documentary, the incredibly pretentious original liner notes, music videos, and footage of the band playing every song on the album in concert. It's a lot to get through, and it's almost all rewarding; you learn, through crystalline recordings and grainy video, that Refused were the type of live band that would slice the top of your skull off. But what the whole package doesn't offer is a sense of context. For all the bluster of the title, it's not like the album invented angular guitar spazz-outs or prevented punk rock, as a whole, from falling into MySpace-emo hell a few years later (though it is telling that Paramore-- arguably the best of the MySpace emo wave, for whatever that's worth-- liberally quoted Refused's "Liberation Frequency" on their first album). Refused Are Fuckin Dead, the accompanying documentary, is supposed to explain why the band broke up in the wake of this clarion-call album, but it mostly just consists of arted-up landscape shots and ex-band members speaking as vaguely as possible about how much pressure they put on themselves. (Pet peeve: No chyrons to identify who's talking. Come on.) We don't learn what these guys did....full text |
| Punknews |
| While most bands have to stay true to their roots, Refused decided to be different. Powered by their strong political beliefs and their already popular hardcore sound (similar to Earth-Crisis), they added another dimension to their music. You can't really put a finger on it... but it's a mix of techno, violins, very distinct guitar riffs, and everything else you'd expect not to hear in a punk rock record. You have to admit to yourself that punk, especially hardcore punk, is a very stagnant genre of music. I love it as much as the next guy, but musically it's not going anywhere. Refused is/was hoping to change that. This is one of the most unique albums I've ever popped into my cd player, and you owe it to good music to check out at least a few good tracks. Their single, New Noise attracted me to the album. It's a 5-or-so minute song, which was the first odd thing about it, and it had a nice bass/guitar line to start it off. About 50 or so seconds through the song, it went fucking techno! I wasn't sure if I was supposed to hate it because it was different, or love it. I kept listening. One minute and three seconds later, you hear Dennis Lyxzèn yell at the top of his lungs: "Can I SCREAM?" The song has my attention, and then I wanted to check out the rest of the album. I didn't even need to go past looking at the titles to understand this is some politically charged individuals. With songs like "The Apollo Programme was a Hoax" and "The Deadly Rhythm (Of the Production Line)"... I knew it'd be interesting. Besides their strong beliefs, the music itself is incredible, as I mentioned above. I literally got goose bumps whenever I'd listen to the CD all the way through. I must admit, that never happens when I listen to a NOFX CD. With short narrations from the lead singer, rambling about such matters like how "capitalism is like organized crime", I fell in love with this album. Calling it just "punk rock" doesn't do them justice. Just call it music. And shit, I really hope this is the shape of punk to come....full text |
| Sputnikmusic |
| It's pretty creepy isn't it? Refused named their album this and for some strange reason, it came true. Without this album, I'd doubt there would be a lot of what has become post-hardcore. To help you with this for the general reader, post-hardcore is like a modern hardcore sound. I'm not exactly a super-nazi to the genre but I'm getting there. With this album you don't think of it as a great album, it's more a revolution. Refused probably never meant it, they probably just wanted to make a great album that showed their political stands. This album is immense as a musical experience but also as a main influence for today's post-hardcore bands. Refused is what Minor Threat did for the original hardcore. They completely made a new sound which wasn't around at that time taking some influence from their fathers. Warning right now, the album is very political so if you are offended by opinions or you think lyrics should be based on dragons and Satan then stay away right now. It is pretty obvious that the band are pretty opinionated because as soon as you open the small booklet which came with the CD then you are suddenly showered with quotes and words that barely anyone on this site would know the meaning to. Refused don't care what other people think, they are their own minds by not getting influenced by any outside sources. They really stick to their guns here. When this type of music comes around then the gentle minds of today's youth will lap up the lyrics and their opinions which is amazing considering that a lot of music today doesn't really speak to young ones. That was how big this album is but at this point it seems I'm repeating myself and ranting off-topic'. The band originated from Sweden and though they did create a new sound, they never really had a full life with only 2 CD's and a DVD. This one is more about post-hardcore while the one before this was a raw hardcore album. One thing you might find strange is the synths in the songs. They use it in breakdowns or anywhere they feel is necessary. I even remember a fellow Mxer calling the band industrial hardcore. I'm not making fun or anything but this could be true in some ways. The synths do play a big part which is common in industrial and there is no denying this is a hardcore album. So yeah, this could be true but they were so much more than putting them into a specific genre. Every time I listen to this, I get a weird tingly feeling. Every time I put the next track on I think, 'I love this song so much'. If you are a hardcore fan then I'm sure you're the same....full text |
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