Refused Are Fucking Dead
Label: Burning Heart/Epitaph
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: Refused Are Fucking Dead
Through a lens that’s as darkly austere as an Ingmar Bergman flick (think long, contemplative shots of bearded drummer David Sandström in a Mennonite hat walking near a river at dusk), the Refused Are Fucking Dead DVD documents the dying gasps of a band whose final release – 1998’s The Shape of Punk to Come – far eclipsed any recording of its aggressive ilk. In one scene, the band knowingly admits to making a potent album, but what the entire film acknowledges is that this awareness came at a point when both the message behind the music and the ego required to pull it off were escaping the band’s faculties. At one point, guitarist Jon Brännström equates his being in Refused to a form of self-mutilation. The apposite end comes when the weary band gathers up its last ounce of resolve to play its final show, only to have the police pull the plug after the third song.
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2006.