Refused 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!)