The Shape of Punk To Come - Overview

Overview

This album marked a sharp and conscious departure from Refused's earlier work. The philosophy of the album, expounded in the ample liner notes and encapsulated in the song "New Noise", was that punk and hardcore music could not be anti-establishment by continuing to package revolutionary lyrics in sounds which had been increasingly co-opted into the mainstream. The sound of the record challenged existing punk sensibilities; it was "punk" at a fundamental level, but thanks to bold and experimental combinations of hardcore, prog-punk, techno, and even jazz sounds, it was worlds apart from pop punk bands such as Green Day and Blink-182, and even more traditional punk rock bands such as Bad Religion and Pennywise.

The album also includes "political interludes" between some songs. The use of more technological sounds or drum and bass music, particularly on The New Noise Theology E.P. which followed the album, is a tactic that various members of Refused have credited to the influence of Philadelphia punk band Ink & Dagger.