Refused are a centrepiece in modern punk rock activism. When the Swedish hardcore act dropped their first album, This Just Might Be… the Truth (1994), they offered a stark contrast to the college burnout pop punk stylings of The Offspring’s Smash and Green Day’s comparably bubble-gum Dookie, two albums that washed punk rock into the mainstream stratosphere.

For the first couple of years, Refused remained under the radar, using the peaceful medium of violent art to chant left-wing ideologies to the renegades, rejects, and social outcasts of the underground. In 1998, the hardcore act would transform the genre with the release of their magnum opus, The Shape of Punk to Come.

Refused branched out from the traditional hardcore sound, using electronic elements, audio samples, and atmospheric ambience to challenge the idea of punk. At the time, the band believed their lyrics couldn’t truly be “anti-establishment” if they were put to music that was becoming audibly mainstream.

That same year, the band broke up as their ground-breaking record catapulted them into posthumous stardom. It was 17 years before the band would release their comeback, Freedom, in 2015. The album was an experiment in itself, but the group seems to have found their new groove. In 2019, they released Freedom’s follow up, the opposing, less optimistic War Music. 

“War Music represents the times that we live in,” says frontman Denis Lyxzen from his home in Northern Sweden. “I think that when you create good art, you need to make it a reflection of the world that you live in, and really kind of hone in on what’s happening around you.”

Despite their uprising in the 90s, commenting on current events makes Refused so relevant today. Whereas the entertainment industry is built for distraction, Refused are putting social and economical awareness at the forefront of their message, using their platform to be a voice for the voiceless.

“There’s always someone that has something to gain from other people’s loss,” he says. “There’s always something someone can gain from the fact that we’re critically divided. Once you start seeing that matrix of constructions, you can see what’s wrong with the world.”

Lyxzen believes social change may be afoot. A revolution ignited by today’s youth. In the song “Turn the Cross,” the sixth song featured on War Music, the band chants to listeners: “If you hear this, you’re a weapon.”

“It means exactly that. If you hear what we’re saying, if you listen to our music and understand and sympathize with our thoughts, you are a weapon,” he says. “You’re a weapon of change, of a better world. It is a call to arms.”