Refused ended their career in 1998 with the legendary record The Shape Of Punk To Come. The band picked up once more back in 2014 and released a new album called Freedom in 2015. Freedom was very, very different from The Shape Of Punk To Come and had a lot of fans wondering if the band would ever return to that sound.
According to vocalist Dennis Lyxzén in an interview on the Someone Who Isn't Me podcast, the new record Refused is working on now will surely please fans of The Shape Of Punk To Come.
"We have a new record that’s almost done — not quite. It’s been one of those, in typical Refused fashion, it’s just been going on for a long time and no one’s enjoying the process of making the record and it’s been kind of grueling. But we’re almost at the finishing line, which feels great. It feels like it’s gonna be a really fantastic record."
"I think this is the record that people wanted us to do last time, but I think it’s good that we did Freedom last time, cause it kind of levels the playing field," said the singer. "It’s not like we’re gonna do The Shape of Punk to Come 2 – cause that’s not it. But I think that the people who love Shape will be like ‘Oh yeah, this makes a little bit more sense,’ because we just had to level the playing field a little bit for ourselves. Because Refused was an entity that did not belong to us for a very long time."
Lyxzén adds that Freedom was a reaction to being gone for so long, and "now we’re just a bit more comfortable and a bit more relaxed and I think we know what type of band we are. And I think it’s gonna show on this new record, I think people are gonna listen to it and be like ‘Ohhh, alright. I get it.'" Refused is still the same lineup as they were on The Shape Of Punk To Come, sans guitarist Jon Brännström who did not join in on the reunion. Brännström was not replaced by anyone.
