Refused - Freedom (ALBUM REVIEW)

I stumbled across this Swedish punk rock band called Refused a few years ago online when I found a song called New Noise, and listened to their album called The Shape of Punk to Come, and I thought this album was revolutionary and was the inception to today's punk-rock sound. They had similar style with Rage Against The Machine, with their aggressive unpredictability and covering political issues with their lyrics. I researched for more of their music, only to realise that the band split up after the album in 1998, but when I heard that they reunited and began touring in 2012, I was hoping for another release that hopefully will have the same veins as their last effort. Unfortunately, we'd been given something different, showing how 17 years can change a band's perception within their sound.

When I first heard their first single release in over 15 years, Elektra, I was elevated because it showed their complexity, with some influences from bands like Turbowolf and Tool, with Dennis Lyxzén's vocals maturing into a Dave Grohl style kind of yelling and screaming. It certainly got me pumped. Then I heard the entire album, and I wasn't expecting a mix bag of songs, Refused fans will find some quite polarizing as it just didn't have that intensity. Old Friends/ New War had a weird, groovy atmosphere, with synths and unusual sound bites thrown in there. Then there's Françafrique, in which there's political chanting but overthrown by its funky riff. Thought is Blood is even more unusual with synths just all over the place, but is rescued with its second half where they show their funky creativity, the bass especially, and had an interesting chorus. War On The Palaces was a pure on Classic Rock kind of song, it was like listening to AC/DC or Kiss that it felt kind of lazy. Halfway through the album, Lyxzén's vocals becomes a little frustrating to listen to, because it sounds too much like Dave Grohl, like listening to the Foo Fighters song White Limo 10 times. Servants of Death felt like a QOTSA song with some funky 80s throwback vibe thrown in there. There's still other tracks in the album like Dawkins Christ that still has that punk-rock spark within them that I really enjoyed. The la-la-la build up to the fast paced drums. Destroy The Man shows some mysterious side of the album, with its minor tone and the weird oohs. 366 definitely had a complex riff that was indeed and headed to that Tool kind of sound throughout the end. The final track Useless Europeans had that Western vibe, sounding almost like Muse's Knights of Cydonia with its chants but the finish was just anti-climactic.

After hearing Elektra, I was expecting an album that would actually be destructive and fun to listen to, but their maturity didn't show it and instead it felt like listening to a toned down The Hives. I'm not hating on The Hives, just saying it's not something I expected from them, after admiring The Shape of Punk to Come. If I were to recommend this band, listen to that instead of this disappointing comeback album.

Overall: Freedom is not the comeback album fans will expect, as they strand away from their punk-rock roots and their creativity felt like it was going to a different route, but their political integrity and complexity are still here, it's just polished into a classic-rock style kind of album.

Check Out: Elektra, Dawkins Christ

6/10

Album is Out Now