Freedom will be the name of the new record by seminal post-hardcore band, Refused, their first in seventeen years!
The album drops on June 30th via Epitaph and it's available for pre-order on a bunch of different releases and bundles at the label's website.
The first track to emerge is Elektra, presented in a very impressive video of kaleidoscopic visuals and stunning psychedelics and it sounds more than promising.
Refused broke it off in 1998, right after the release of their third album, The Shape Of Punk To Come, their classic swansong that defined the whole post-hardcore genre and influenced countless bands that came after. The band formed again briefly in 2012 for a reunion tour and called it quits again, but now, as they describe it in a new press release, "Refused Are Fucking Alive"...
Usually we're not crazy about reunions of bands that have been away for that long, particularly if they left with their head up high, having released work as important as The Shape Of Punk To Come, but Refused seem like they know what they're doing and Freedom will more likely be a noble successor to post-hardcore's biggest monument.
Refused are going on a world tour starting this summer and on select US dates they will be opening for the band that had the other great big reunion of the year so far, Faith No More.
ZR