I first heard of this Swedish hardcore band when I saw their very odd video (which features them running around with monster masks and V-neck sweaters, breaking shit and hanging upside down in front of a towering wall of amplifiers) on MTV, of all things. Anyhow, this is a great album, far more than typical loud-and-so-fast-it-all-seems-like-a-blur hardcore: the songs are intricately arranged, flowing through head-spinning genre-splices ("The Deadly Rhythm" features an honest-to-god jazz interlude before roaring into a guitar assault; "New Noise" adds a 303 bass squelch and loops to the mix; "The Apollo Programme Was a Hoax" includes upright bass, bells, what sounds like a harpsichord, and god knows what else) without descending into the kind of pretentious we're-just-fucking-around stuff it may sound like from my inadequate description. Like At The Drive-In (another sadly missed band), Refused had a great deal of intensity going for them, proving that there's a lot of possibility in the realm of what you could call "loud guitar music" without resorting to tired society-sucks cliches.

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