Seminal Swedish band Refused are calling it quits.
The band’s preliminary run between 1991 to 1998 arguably re-shaped post-hardcore, serving to to spur on a brand new era of teams. Famously, the Swedish group signed off with a observe that started “Refused are fucking dead…”
Reforming in 2012, Refused’s electrifying second arc noticed them tour a number of the largest venues of their lives, all whereas producing materials that strengthened their legacy.
Properly, it’s throughout. No, actually, this time. A full farewell tour has been organised, together with their final ever reveals in america.
There’s a prolonged observe penned by drummer David Sandström, so we’ll share it in full:
We have been supposed to do that in Could. Roll out our modest farewell run, beginning with the Rosendal Backyard Get together in Stockholm after which doing a number of reveals right here and there earlier than calling it quits finish of yr. The rehearsals had been magnificent, the vibe was nice and two days earlier than the present we performed a secret present at Kulturhuset Femman in Uppsala. There have been no footage taken and it wasn’t filmed nevertheless it was an ideal present in entrance of perhaps 60 native scenesters. We frolicked afterwards, I had a number of beers and me and Dennis, nonetheless vegan and mainly straight edge, traded silly tales about bands we love. It was a superb night. Subsequent morning I get a name from Dennis’ spouse and a few tumultuous hours later it’s confirmed that he’s had a coronary heart assault on the resort.
We performed our first present in February 1992. That very same week George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin held a press convention at Camp David to declare that the chilly conflict was over. That’s how way back it was. It was so way back that I can’t fairly keep in mind who we have been that wintry Saturday after we piled right into a automotive and drove as much as Luleå to play 4 Gorilla Biscuits songs, a Shelter music, an ACDC music and I feel 3 unique compositions to a crowd of 50-60 blind drunk northerners. I had simply turned 17, had by no means travelled outdoors of Sweden and by the point the band broke up in 1998 we had performed over 500 reveals throughout Europe and the US. To say that the band modified our lives can be a gross understatement, and to say that we received to know one another in these seven years is as properly. A band that excursions turns into like a household, particularly once you do it in a van, with maps, scrambling to discover a squat in Halberstadt the place you have been purported to have began enjoying an hour in the past. And household relations may be troublesome. So it was with us.
That was partly why we wished to present it one other shot in 2012. We had made an honest splash within the nineties and the breakup had been very sudden and chaotic, there have been emotions they usually weren’t aired out and the entire thing had been such a shitshow that it was virtually inevitable that we’d get again on the horse in some unspecified time in the future. We wished a do-over, to see what was nonetheless there, if something, and what might be manufactured from it. There’s a Neil Younger music referred to as “Buffalo Springfield Once more” the place he sings:
“I’d wish to see these guys once more and provides it a shot. Possibly now we are able to present the world what we received
However I’d similar to to play for the enjoyable we had”.
And that was mainly it. We gave it a number of pictures between 2012 and 2024. All of us have totally different takes on the way it went and what the legacy of the reformed band might be, however personally I felt we couldn’t fairly agree on what we have been purported to do musically, and we have been nonetheless combating that when the pandemic hit. Kristofer felt that he’d finished what he wished to do and left the band in august of 2020 and though there was a delayed impact to the dying blow, a dying blow it was.
So at first of this yr we began planning to have one final large hurrah, to make the tip of the band a enjoyable, beneficiant, indulgent affair. And that’s the way it felt after the primary present, it’s the perfect we’ve ever sounded and we have been actually having fun with ourselves, tossing in outdated songs we haven’t performed because the nineties and even a Misfits cowl. After which catastrophe struck. I visited Dennis within the hospital the day after he was admitted and true to type he was not glad concerning the hospital robe he was pressured to put on. Hooked as much as all these machines, unshaven with tousled hair, I swear the very first thing he stated was: (pointing to the robe) “I imply, this isn’t nice”. I suppose they don’t allow you to put on fits or Unfavourable Method t-shirts within the hospital.
So on to the excellent news: Dennis is doing nice. He’s one of many healthiest dudes I do know, he can’t sit nonetheless, workouts quite a bit and it follows that his recuperation can be swift. He’s gotten wonderful care and his physician has run all of the bodily exams on him they usually all point out he’s making a full restoration. For sure, he’s itching to get again on tour to play reveals and he even urged we should always hold preliminary dates arrange for the late fall and winter, however we determined to postpone these reveals and as an alternative begin up within the spring. So yeah, that’s the place we’re at. We’re coming to the US in March/April 2025 and we’re what else we are able to do with the remainder of the yr, all we all know is that we wish to end again residence in Sweden on the finish of the yr. Tell us if there are songs you need us to play and we’ll give them a shot. Hope to see you on the market.
Alongside this, Refused are making ready the twenty fifth anniversary vinyl re-issue of ‘The Form of Punk To Come’ – a restricted collector’s version filled with exclusives, together with a 3 LP model of the album on unique colored vinyl, unreleased demos and uncommon alternate variations of songs.
The complete anniversary bundle additionally comes with a 12-song tribute album titled ‘The Form Of Punk To Come Obliterated’ with covers and remixes by bands like Quicksand, Zulu, Gel, IDLES, Touche Amore and extra.
You’ll be able to pre-order HERE.
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