The Shape of Punk to Come by The Refused (Review)

Man, I wish that this album title had come true. Punk rock would still be interesting if it sounded more like these guys. Unfortunately, Refused broke up. What a swan song this disk was though. I buy about one hardcore record a year — some previous winners: Iceburn, Training For Utopia — and this one could probably last me two. There’s all sorts of non-hardcore elements in this disk like samples, acoustic bass, and melodica, but that’s not really what I keep going back and listening for. It’s certainly not the straight faced Marxist lyrics either, but hell, no one’s perfect.

These guys were just flat out good at the hardcore game, and quite a few other musical sports as well. Dennis Lyxzen had an incredibly expressive voice, which I’ll only extrapolate on to say this — he makes you want to scream along. Is there any higher compliment for a vocalist in this genre?

Refused combined intricate song structures, but they never got tiresome with it, like the average ’90s rock exercise in rhythmic discombobulation. They weren’t afraid to not use distortion at times, but when they did, I never got the feeling they were trying to be something they weren’t. And when they did kick on the distortion, it was a gloriously angry, loud, beautiful thing. Regardless of language, ideology, or genre, intensity communicates.

Written by Pearson Greer.