From https://www.angelfire.com/punk/refused/
In the
year of 1989 in Umea, Sweden, the singer and songwriter Dennis Lyxzén
started
a hardcore-band called STEP FORWARD together with the bass-player Toft Stade, drummer Jens Norden and guitarist Henrik Jansson. Step forward
was the first hardcore-band in Sweden and also the first Swedish
band that held on to the American youth lifestyle Straight
edge. Soon they recorded their first demo "I am
me". In October 1990 their 2:nd demo-recording
came up. It was called "Does it make a difference?" Eventually they
started getting different opinions on which kind of songs they
wanted to play. This finally came to a point from where there was
no return. And the history of the first Swedish straight
edge-band ends right here and now, and Step forward
eventually split up. The band never got big, maybe because
hardcore was so new in Sweden at this time. They did their last
gig in December 1991. A few years later a full-length CD-album
titled "It did make a difference"
with
Step forward was released by the Swedish hardcore-label Desperate
fight records (Abhinanda, Separation). This was a compilation
with all the demo-recordings and some live shows collected all on
one record, 39 explosive punkrock/hardcore beats! ...And risen
from the ashes of Step forward the Umea hardcore-band REFUSED saw the daylight
in the year of 1992. The line-up consisted of Dennis Lyxzén
as
the singer, David Sandstrom as the drummer,
guitarist Par Hansson and Jonas Lidgren
on
bass. They did their first show in Lulea, Sweden and soon
recorded their first demo-recording simply titled "Refused".
Then
Jonas left the band, and was in August 1992 replaced by
another bass-player named Magnus Bjorklund. They also added
the guitarist Henrik Jansson, a member of Step
forward. The new line-up gave a greater result and shoved a
more mature side of the band. The 2:nd demo-recording "Operation
headfirst" was the result. The demo was released at
the end of 1992. The band had become more political then before
and both the music and the lyrics became better. In 1993 Refused
got a contract with the Swedish punk/hardcore label Burning
heart records, nowadays one of the biggest punk-labels
worldwide! The debut CD "This is the new deal", was recorded in
May 1993 and relaesed by Burning heart. It was a 5-track
CD-single with 3 songs from the ”Operation
headfirst”-demo and 2 new. At this time Refused
got a deal with another label called Startrec and management
nowadays called Startracks (Fireside, Loosegoats). The
recording of the first full-length CD, and a single for the "pump
the brakes"- song from the album was made in October
1993. The ”Pump the brakes”-CDS was released in
February 1994, and in March same year the full-length album
titled "This just might be…the
truth" hit the stores. There was also a video of
the ”Pump the brakes” song which was a big song
at this time and still is a classic today. It was here it all
started for the band, they were now the leading hardcore-band in
Scandinavia and massive press, radio and national TV followed
them up. Refused hit the road in May 1994 to do their
first tour of Sweden called ”Adrenaline”
together with Randy, Ashram and Mary beats jane.
The tour was backed by a promotional tour-MCD printed in 4000
copies that came free with the magazine ”Close-up”.
Anyway the band actually never really liked the ”This
just might be…”-release and many of the songs were
written very quickly. Then in July 1994 Refused recorded 7
new songs for a new MCD called "Everlasting". This release
was also made under some heavy time pressure, but there was now a
new harder and more mature sound, inspired from the American
hardcore styled straight edge. This release was like a turning
point for the band and they were very proud of this recording.
This masterpiece is still a real hardcore-classic today, a brick
on the wall of Swedish hardcore history! Also released in the
United States by Equal vision records. At this time the
guitar-player Par Hansson left the band to play in the
Swedish hardcore-band Abhinanda. Refused and Abhinanda
switched guitarists and Refused got Abhinanda's
guitar-player Kristofer Steen instead. And as
the attention now were growing Refused were nominated for
a Swedish Grammy award as the best alternative hardrock-band in
February 1995. Refused didn't win, but they saw it as some
sort of proof that all theirs work during 1994 had given results.
There was also a European tour together with the well-known
American Hare-Krishna band 108. Then sometime in 1995 a
split CD-single was recorded together with their Swedish
punkrock-friends Randy. The recording was titled "Refused
loves Randy" and contained 4 tracks where they did
covers of each others songs. Refused performed 2 songs,
written by Randy and Randy performed 2 songs,
written by Refused. It was not a really serious release;
it was more of a fun thing to do friends between. Released in
Scandinavia only. The guitar-player Henrik Jansson left
the band after the ”Refused loves Randy”-CD, and
in August 1995 a new guitarist named Jon F Brannstrom, also an active
guitarist and singer in Purusam at this time, joined Refused.
Then in May 1995 Refused hit the road again to tour in
Germany together with Americas biggest hardcore/straight
edge-bands Earth crisis and Snapcase. In December
1995 Refused started the recording of their 2:nd
full-length album "Songs to fan the flames of
discontent". This release showed a more mature side of
the band and they sounded more metal than they had ever done
before, this time inspired by bands like Slayer. This
awesome album placed the band as one of the leading
hardcore/straight edge-bands in Europe. The album was released in
late 1996 by startracks and also by the big American
hardcore-label Victory records (Earth crisis, Snapcase) in
the States. Refused were now touring Europe together with
the leading Swedish Emo-rock band Fireside and metal-band Entombed.
There was also a CD-single of the "Rather be dead"-song
from the album released later in 1996. It was titled "Rather
be dead e.p" and also contained the exclusive Swedish
vegetarian-song ”Jag ater inte mina vanner”
written and performed together with Tomas Dileva. All the
money they earned on the "Rather be dead"-release
was given away to "Nordiska samfundet mot plagsamma
djurforsok" (N.S.M.P.D), a Swedish organisation against
tests on animals. Refused were once again nominated for a
Swedish Grammy award as best Swedish alternative hardrock-band in
February 1997 together with bands such as Misery loves co
and The Hellacopters. Unfortunately, they didn’t win
this time either. Refused were also nominated as one of
the best Swedish live-acts by Swedish national radio in 1997. And
no…they didn’t win this time either. Anyway it's very
unusual that a hardcore-band gets this kind of nominations. In
1997 Refused got a new contract with Burning heart
records (Millencolin, No fun at all). And as Refused
now changed label, Burning heart decided to re-release ”This
just might be…” and ”Songs to
fan…" under licence from Startracks. At the
same time Refused released two new albums called "The e.p
compilation" with all the singles and MCD's collected
all on one CD and "The demo compilation" which contained
the early demo-recordings. In late 1997 Refused started to
record their third full-length album named "The
shape of punk to come". Refused had now opened
the doors to a new kind of music with wide influences with
everything from jazz and techno to hardcore and Emo backed up by
Samplings, violins and Cello. Music for punkrock herd approval!
The album was released by Burning heart records in Europe
and by Epitaph (Pennywise, NOFX) in the states. The
biggest hit from the album "New noise" was also
released as a CD-single titled "The new noise theology
e.p." This was also the first release with new
bass-player Ulf Nyberg. The date was
set In February and march 1998 to tour Europe on the Burning
heart records-tour "Sued(e)palooza" together
with label-mates Liberator, The hives and No fun at all.
Then a few months later the date was set for another tour in The
United States, but the tour was interrupted…
"…Refused "broke
up" on the 26th of September 1998 in Atlanta, Georgia and in
a last feeble attempt to break the linear timeline that the
modern ways of production has forced upon us we played the last
show in Harrisonburg, Virginia on the 6th of October 1998. The
show was interrupted after 4 songs by the local policeforce who
thought that they've had enough. We knew that they were onto us
but it was both a shock and a relief that they did not catch us
until the last show. Then, after 7 years of trying, we finally
managed to create our own timespace within the capitalist
powerstructure. The crowd managed to manifest a moment of
passionate living when they continued to scream "rather be
alive…" to the corrupt and useless preserves of private
property…"
Continue to read refused's
final communiqué…
REFUSED ARE
FUCKING DEAD -
LONG LIVE REFUSED (R.I.P) 1992-98
Also available:
/ The official biography (Burning heart records) /
/ The old official biography (Handbook for
revoltionaries # 1) /