★★★★★
The Swedish band's third LP is, remarkably, 12 years old, but retains an inventive invective that blasts the speakers across the room. Though some of the neo-rave bleeps and blobs do sound a little dated, there are ideas hammering out at such a pace that it hardly matters; a depth of intelligence melded with righteous indignation hits the mark over and over again...
- www.recordcollectormag.com
2010-12-21
★★★★★
Refused are one the most influential bands in the history of modern music. Hailing from Sweden, the band make abrasive music, with heart and soul and would go on to inspire some of the many bands in today's post hardcore/emo scene - which in itself is both a blessing and a curse. Earlier this year rumours circulated that the band were due to reform after a message on the band's website that simply read "COMING SOON"...
- hangout.altsounds.com
2010-11-02
★★★★★
To call a punk record a masterpiece is probably a faux pas, so it's a good thing that The Shape of Punk to Come doesn't really sound like a punk record. That was kind of the point of the Swedish socio-political hardcore foursome's final effort: To convey a truly revolutionary message, it had to transcend the confines of market-ready '90s punk (not exactly the genre's halcyon days)...
- www.filter-mag.com
2010-06-17
★★★★★
Almost thirteen years have passed since Refused played their last. Wracked with self-doubt, fatigue and disillusionment, Dennis Lyxzén, David Sandström, Kristofer Steen and Jon F Brännström spiralled from each other, leaving the world with their final, posthumous manifesto: The Shape of Punk to Come...
- drownedinsound.com
2010-06-11
★★★★★
Like its role model, the pioneering post-hardcore band Nation Of Ulysses, Refused always presented itself as a gang—albeit one that wore Portishead T-shirts, quoted Guy Debord, and hailed from Sweden. But Refused's us-against-the-world unity had disintegrated by the time The Shape Of Punk To Come was made...
- www.avclub.com
2010-06-10
★★★★★
The recent (expanded) reissue of The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St prompted widespread reappraising of an album largely dismissed upon its 1972 release. The band's greatest-ever long-player, said a slew of critics. Such a shame, then, that they followed it up with turgid fare far removed from the lean vibrancy of their late 60s and early 70s heyday...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2010-06-10
★★★★★
No band has ever mastered the ominous cymbal tap quite like Refused. On the Swedish hardcore band's final album and masterpiece, David Sandström's shivering tings signal a sort of warning. They usually come right as the band launches from tense, coiled quiet into all-out assault-- or, if they're already in assault mode, from one head-spinning riff to another. Those transitions come up a lot on 1998's The Shape of Punk to Come, and they keep you on your toes...
- pitchfork.com
2010-06-10
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
If you haven't heard of Refused, I'll try to give you the two sentence rundown and fill you in a
bit. Although their lineup has changed several times, the four-piece Swedish group has thusfar
been known as hardcore, with a bit of a punk edge. Their last album Songs To Fan The Flames Of
Discontent was song after song of relentlessly growled vocals and chunky rhythm guitars over
heavy-hit drums...
- www.almostcool.org
2009-06-05