The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombination in 12 Bursts, often shortened to The Shape of Punk to Come, is the third album by Swedish hardcore punk band Refused, released on 27 October 1998 through Burning Heart Records.
Although Refused broke up only months after the album's release, The Shape of Punk to Come has since found an audience for the band and largely contributed to their posthumous fame, as well as inspiring many later artists in a wide range of genres. Kerrang! magazine listed The Shape of Punk to Come at #13 on their 50 Most Influential Albums of All Time list in 2003.
Overview
This album marked a sharp and conscious departure from Refused's earlier work. The philosophy of the album, expounded in the ample liner notes and encapsulated in the song "New Noise", was that punk and hardcore music could not be anti-establishment by continuing to package revolutionary lyrics in sounds which had been increasingly co-opted into the mainstream. The sound of the record challenged existing punk sensibilities; it can be seen as "punk" at a fundamental level and includes experimental combinations of post-hardcore, post-punk, techno, and jazz sounds.
The album also includes "political interludes" between some songs. The use of more technological sounds or drum and bass music, particularly on The New Noise Theology E.P. which followed the album, is a tactic that various members of Refused have credited to the influence of Philadelphia punk band Ink & Dagger.
Recording
In 2006, producer Pelle Henricsson said of the recording:We did not use Pro Tools at all. The Shape was recorded on 24 track 2 inch tape and occasional Adats in sync when the 24 tracks wasn't enough. The drums were recorded as grooves and then edited in Soundscape without any grid reference. The whole thing was then bounced back to 2 inch where all guitars and basses were recorded. Same thing with vocals but not "every word" moved around. More like keeping phrases that were within the groove. The Soundscape system we used back then held 12 tracks and was used as a stand alone editing unit. Overall the whole recording had groove as THE key word, maybe that's why it's still a cool record!?
The album's production has inspired other artists to work with Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lövström, including Poison the Well, and Hell is for Heroes.
Samples and references
The cover artwork imitates the cover of Teen-Age Dance Session (1994) by Rye Coalition, which is of itself a reference to the cover of Teen-Age Dance Session (1954) by Dan Terry. The song title "Worms of the Senses / Faculties of the Skull" is an allusion to a line from Allen Ginsberg's long poem "Howl". The transition from "Liberation Frequency" to "The Deadly Rhythm" features a spoken word part taken from an introduction by Bob Garrity for the song "A Night In Tunisia" performed by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Candido Camero on 14 November 1952. "The Deadly Rhythm" features a musical quotation of Bo Diddley's 1959 R&B song "I'm a Man". The break in "New Noise" samples Colonel Kurtz's famous monologue from the 1979 Vietnam war film Apocalypse Now. The spoken text at the start of '"Protest Song '68" comes from the opening of the Henry Miller novel Tropic of Cancer. The title of the song "Refused are Fucking Dead" is a reference to the Born Against song "Born Against are Fucking Dead". The album's title The Shape of Punk to Come and the song of the same name are a reference to Ornette Coleman's 1959 avant-garde jazz album The Shape of Jazz to Come. "Tannhäuser / Derivè" includes a reference to the theme "The Augurs of Spring: Dances of the Young Girls" from Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.
Musical style
The album has been described musically as post-hardcore, and hardcore punk, with elements of jazz, punk rock, electronica, post-rock, ambient, and heavy metal.
In other media and legacy
"New Noise" has been featured in movies such as Crank, Jalla! Jalla!, The Hitman's Bodyguard, Boot Camp, Triangle of Sadness, and Friday Night Lights; in the television programs 24 (Season 1), Rage, The Bear, Criminal Minds, Nitro Circus, The Following, and Wayne; in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground; and in the trailers for the movie Witching and Bitching and the video game Doom. It was also the entrance music for major league pitcher John Axford when he closed games for the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Used, Anthrax, Snot, and Crazy Town have covered "New Noise" on numerous occasions live.
The British magazine Rock Sound gave the album The Shape of Punk to Come the number one spot in the magazine's list of the 100 albums that most influenced the music that Rock Sound covers.