Refused is back from the dead, according to what the Swedish 90’s hardcore band posted on its website yesterday.
Refused will reunite to play Coachella Music and Arts Festival and Sweden’s Way Out West Festival after a 14 year hiatus.
After seven years and three LPs, Refused called it quits due to creative differences following the release of its final album The Shape of Punk to Come: a Chimerical Bombination in 12 Bursts.
According to the band’s website, members have “remained friends and kept in touch.” Despite cordiality, Refused hadn’t considered a reunion show until recently.
“There have been offers, and lots of jokes about these offers. We’ve sort of looked down from our high horses and made fun of people who’ve just wanted to share the psychopathic intensity that we would deliver on a nightly basis in our post-pubescent prime. A reunion has just seemed irrelevant to us,” read an explanation on the band’s website.
The members of Refused also explained they were “too tangled up in petty internal bickering” to do The Shape of Punk to Come justice on tour following the album’s release in 1998.
“Suddenly there’s this possibility to do it like it was intended. We wanna do it over, do it right. For the people who’ve kept the music alive through the years, but also for our own sakes.”
Refused is scheduled to play Coachella on April 13 and 20 and will play Way Out West August 9 through 11.
Seminal 90’s post-hardcore band At the Drive-In has also reunited after 11 years to play the annual California music festival. The band is scheduled to play Coachella April 15 and 22.
