REFUSED - Freedom

Sometimes there are sparks, but no urgency, and they fizzle away faster than my attention span for this trifling carbon copy pastiche of Refused’s raging former self.

Seeing Refused live during their last Scandinavian tour 17 years ago felt like being tapped right into the mainline of a musical revolution. Like they had re-invented the wheel that is songwriting.

What Refused feels like today is a band yielded to maturity with dividends of high market value, but exorbitant creative depreciation. The songs - co-written by a third party - shine with all the sleekness of a pandering veneer of mainstream appeal. The shape of punk roots put out to pasture. Marketing mediocrity to late adapters hip to popularity, but oblivious to the groundbreaking nature of the shape.

Freedom is Refused at their most jaded, or maybe this review is me at mine. Only time will tell. [Epitaph]
- Bogi Bjarnason
More Bogi over at Eddies in the Tide of Regret.

Photo by @DustinRabin