Music

Album review: Refused’s ‘Freedom’

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Annie Zaleski

Four stars

Refused Freedom

Swedish hardcore band Refused reunited in 2012, 14 years after breaking up after releasing seminal album The Shape of Punk to Come. As a recent Punk Rock Bowling headline slot underscored, the group’s second go-around has been nothing short of incendiary, and that wild-eyed fire extends to Freedom, Refused’s first stab at new music since returning. Although the presence of pop svengali Shellback gave some fans pause—he produced two songs, the simmering “Elektra” and bass-heavy snarl “366”—the album is no mainstream grab. Songs are full of the band’s usual smart combination of brutal polemics and political commentary, with pointed critiques of religion, oppressive governments and economic inequality coming off as especially poignant. Refused also smartly pushes sonic expectations at every turn, between the horns greasing frontman Dennis Lyxzén’s cries of “Kill, kill, kill!” on “Françafrique,” the funk grooves edging post-punk standout “Servants of Death” and the hip-hop-like rhythmic base of “Old Friends/New War.” These curveballs complement the band’s familiar sounds (Lyxzén’s charred vocals, barbed-wire punk riffs). In fact, Freedom is the sound of a band smashing presumptions in the name of bold forward progress.

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