Tuesday, March 31, 2015

#1664 Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come

I love me anyone who goes for it - better go out in a flaming blaze of shit than putter around making their same shit again and again (right, Spoon?). This is messy, indulgent, ridiculous: hardcore screaming stretched to 7+ minute songs packed with start-stops, going

THUNDERING RIFFS

weird samples

THUNDERING RIFFS


deserts of spare drums and bass


THUNDERING RIFFS

But all that contrast is all along one dimension: the dynamic and tempo shifts are huge, but (parts of Protest Song 68 aside) the tone's always the same, the basic dissonant chords, the same screaming, alternating between seething rage and exploding rage, never really landing a memorable moment, just a sprawling landscape of jagged noise, yellow-orange plateaus of staggering size. So it lacks that immediacy of punk, lacks the rich adventurousness of prog, landing in some strange middle ground that I want to love, but just don't 3/5

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