Perhaps it was inevitable that the massively influential Swedish hardcore band Refused would record a new album. In 2012 the band reunited for some shows, and though it played some festival dates here and there after that initial run, last fall Refused announced it had fired guitarist Jon Brännström a year prior. The firing of Brännström, coupled with a bevy of tour dates—some with Faith No More—lead many to believe that 17 years after it claimed itself to be “fucking dead,” it looks like Refused would rather be alive.
Today the band announced its follow-up to 1998’s The Shape Of Punk To Come, a genre classic that, ironically, never received a proper followup. The album is titled Freedom, and will be released on June 30 via Epitaph Records. Along with this announcement comes the band’s first new song, Freedom’s opening track, “Elektra.” The song is one of two produced and co-written by Shellback, the Swedish producer who has previously collaborated with Taylor Swift, Pink, and many other chart-topping acts, proving that the shape of punk the band envisioned was actually just pop music.
Freedom tracklist:
1. Elektra
2. Old Friends / New War
3. Dawkins Christ
4. Françafrique
5. Thought Is Blood
6. War On The Palaces
7. Destroy The Man
8. 366
9. Servants Of Death
10. Useless Europeans