Refused are fucking alive. There's no escape. The iconic Swedish hardcore band is releasing "Freedom," their first new album in 17 years on via Epitaph. In 1998, Refused released their iconic album "The Shape Of Punk To Come." It was also the year that the band broke up and declared "Refused Are Fucking Dead." Fourteen years later, the band reignited in 2012 for a Coachella performance. The group started contemplating new music within the first four months of the reunion tour, a process greatly aided by the fact that drummer David Sandstrom, guitarist Kristofer Steen and bassist Magnus Flagge had already been writing together informally for several years under the auspices of a new, vocal-less band. "Freedom" explodes out of the speakers with opening track "Elektra," as vocalist Dennis Lyxzen's throat-shredding declaration that "nothing has changed" catapults Refused into the 21st century
