HISTORY
Refused was founded back in '91 in the north of Sweden
not so far
away from the polar circle.
Refused are well known in Scandinavia for their intense
and
powerful live set with more then 400 shows behind them.
The members of Refused are all Straight Edge but don't
feel that
they really need to be filed under something as Straight
Edge
Hardcore.
In '93 they released their debut mini-CD "This is
the new deal" on
Burning Heart Records. At the same time they got a deal
with the new
label Startrec & Management and began to record their
up-coming
full-lenght CD "This just might be... the truth".
It was recorded during
October at the Sunlight Studios - well known for its
work with
Swedish metal bands such as Entombed and Dismember.
Refused eventually got their much wanted metal touch
to their
American influenced straight edge hardcore style music.
In February '94, Startrec released their 4-track CD-single
"Pump the
brakes" with two songs from the album and 2 previously
unreleased
tracks. In March '94 we relased their debut full-lenght
album. It was
followed up by massive press, radio and national TV.
It received tons of
good press and placed Refused as one of the leading hardcore/metal
bands in Sweden.
In April the band did an 18 dates tour together with
Mary Beats Jane,
Randy and Ashram. The tour was backed by a promotional
tour CD-
single printed in 4,000 copies that came free with an
issue Sweden's
leading magazine Close-up. The tour was a huge success
for Refused
who knocked MBJ to the floor.
In the fall they went back to Sunlight Studios to record
seven new
tracks for a mini-CD that was released on the 28th of
September in
Scandinavia. The band embarked on their second Scandinavian
tour in
November. This time the tour was an even bigger success
and the
band sold out most venues as well as sold huge amounts
of records and
merchandise. This tour definetly gave them the respect
as the largest
hardcore act in Scandinavia, proof being a high number
of full pages in
national papers as well as attending on several national
TV programs.
In February '95 Refused were nominated for a Swedish
Grammy
Award as best alternative hardrock band, along with the
bands Tiamat,
Mary Beats Jane and Misery Loves Co. Even though the
Grammy Awards
sucks, it was nice to be given some sort of proof that
all our work
during '94 had given results. They were also nominated
for the
Zeppelin Award (the Swedish hardrock award presented
by MTV).
From early September to mid-October Refused were on a
European tour with the American band 108. The tour gave
them a lot
of attention from foreign labels. After been approached
by several
labels we decided to go with We Bite Records in Europe.
They released
"This just might be... the truth" in November
'94 and "Everlasting" in
March '95. The album was also released in the States
by We Bite
America.
During the spring of '94, Refused played gigs in Sweden
and released
a split CDEP together with their friends Randy. They
cover each
other's songs giving them a very special touch of their
own
origanality. It was more a fun thing to do during a period
of no new
releases. This CDEP will only be released domestically
by Startrec
and is called "Refused loves Randy".
They also did three shows with Snapcase/Earth Crisis
in Germany
in May. All to promote their up-coming European tour
with Snapcase
in August.
Early 1996 saw the release of the band's second album,
"Songs to fan
the flames of discontent", this time to even greater
press than
before. The album has been released by We Bite Records
in Europe and
by Victory Records in the States.
(This biography was taken from their officiall site!)
BACK TO: REFUSED