Refused Breakup, Announce Farewell Tour
Refused are fucking dead. For real this time.
The Swedish hardcore punks have announced their breakup. Before they say goodbye for good, the band will tour North America in 2025 and plan to wrap things up in their home country at the end of the year.
The North American farewell tour kicks off March 21st, 2025 in Brooklyn and runs through April 10th in Sacramento, California. Tickets go on sale Friday, September 13th at 10 AM local time. See all the dates below.
Additionally, the band will reissue their landmark album The Shape of Punk to Come for its 25th anniversary on November 8th via Epitaph. The Shape of Punk to Come Obliterated features unreleased demos and an album of covers by artists including Fucked Up, Idles, Touché Amoré, Ho99o9, Zulu, and Gel.
Pre-order it here.
Drummer David Sandström issued an in-depth statement about the breakup saying:
“We were supposed to do this in May. Roll out our modest farewell run, starting with the Rosendal Garden Party in Stockholm and then doing a few shows here and there before calling it quits end of year. The rehearsals had been magnificent, the vibe was great and two days before the show we played a secret show at Kulturhuset Femman in Uppsala. There were no pictures taken and it wasn’t filmed but it was a great show in front of maybe 60 local scenesters. We hung out afterwards, I had a few beers and me and Dennis [Lyxzén, vocals], still vegan and basically straight edge, traded stupid stories about bands we love. It was a fine evening. Next morning I get a call from Dennis’ wife and a couple of tumultuous hours later it’s confirmed that he’s had a heart attack at the hotel.
Sandström goes to talk about the band’s first show, their first dissolution in 1998, and their 2012 reunion. Commenting on why the band is breaking up again, he says “…we couldn’t quite agree on what we were supposed to do musically, and we were still struggling with that when the pandemic hit. Kristofer [Steen, guitars] felt that he’d done what he wanted to do and left the band in August of 2020 and although there was a delayed effect to the death blow, a death blow it was.”
He continues: “So in the beginning of this year we started making plans to have one last big hurrah, to make the end of the band a fun, generous, indulgent affair. And that’s how it felt after the first show, it’s the best we’ve ever sounded and we were really enjoying ourselves, tossing in old songs we haven’t played since the ’90s and even a Misfits cover. And then disaster struck. I visited Dennis in the hospital the day after he was admitted and true to form he was not happy about the hospital gown he was forced to wear. Hooked up to all these machines, unshaven with tousled hair, I swear the first thing he said was: (pointing to the gown) ‘I mean, this is not great.’ I guess they don’t let you wear suits or Negative Approach T-shirts in the hospital.”
He ends the statement by assuring fans Dennis is expected to fully recover from a recent heart attack and announces fans for the farewell tour.
Read the full statement below.
