The band Refused had a video that was played at nauseating levels when I was a teenager. I would stay up until 2 a.m on friday nights (saturday mornings) and watch this local cable access show entitled “Punkorama“. That show would only show punk rock and hardcore music videos, and nothing else. It was like MTV only really cool, and it featured a lot of bands that were never played on the radio. These bands were made of steel, at least to me.

The band Refused created an album entitled The Shape of Punk To Come, and at the time I never really understood their sound or their message. It was just too much, and it wasn’t melodic enough, and it just was weird to me.

They broke up.

Years later, I gave them a full listen and realized that these guys were way ahead of their times and that the new screamo bands were just trying to copy Refused bitter cries of unrest. I later got into a band called Anguish Unsaid, and they released an epic album before breaking up entitled, The Chronicles of the Restoration of the Church. That album blew me away, and still is one of my top christian heavy music albums of all time. With lyrical fire and frenetic pacing, that album still haunts me today.I used to argue that Anguish Unsaid sounded like Refused, and well…they kind of did.

Refused’s album is still inspiring today, and it’s creatively better than a lot of the current musical landscape. Even their epic music video was great, featuring some of the best sci-fi lighting ever created for music video, and some interesting furries…yeah..I said it.

here’s the video for Refused’s hit song (in punk circles) called New Noise:

Refused is no longer with us, but their music still draws me into an inspirational frenzy. Maybe you’ll like them too…below you can check out some tracks from Refused. They went on to form some really crappy bands. I highly recommend buying Refused’s A Shape of Punk To Come on cd or mp3!