Refused - New Noise

What this video is

Released in 1998 as part of The Shape of Punk to Come, 'New Noise' encapsulated Refused's Situationist-informed manifesto that punk could not fight establishment culture while using its own co-opted sonic and visual languages. The video's deliberately anti-spectacle performance aesthetic — mod suits, raw lighting, minimal production — was a conscious rejection of late-90s MTV visual excess. The band broke up…

Why it matters

A definitive artifact of late-90s post-hardcore and the Swedish Umeå underground scene. The Shape of Punk to Come — and 'New Noise' as its flagship track — is ranked among the most influential rock albums of the past 25+ years by Kerrang!, Rock Sound, and LA Weekly, credited with shaping…

The director

Frans Joakim Åhlund (born 9 August 1970, Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish musician, producer, and music video director. He is the lead guitarist and vocalist of Caesars, and a member of Teddybears, Smile, and Les Big Byrd. As a producer and songwriter he has…