There is a band in Cyberpunk 2077 known as Samurai. Within the sport’s world, Samurai is fronted by Johnny Silverhand. In the true world, nevertheless, that band is Refused, who lends their abilities to Cyberpunk by writing and performing all of Samurai’s in-game songs.
Refused is likely one of the most influential punk/hardcore bands of all time. Their 1998 album The Form of Punk To Come is a cross-genre experimentation of what hardcore and punk rock really is and what it may be. It combines these usually harsh genres with the extra palatable sounds of techno, jazz, and swing. Naming an album one thing as declarative as The Form of Punk To Come may appear a bit conceited (it is a nod to Ornette Coleman’s 1959 album The Form of Jazz to Come, and in addition a “f— you” to punk and hardcore scenes of the ‘90s, as they inform it now), however fortunately for Refused, their prophecy was appropriate. The Form of Punk to Come was the form of punk to return, setting the groundwork for just about each punk, hardcore, and many others. album that got here after. Bands like Paramore and Linkin Park cite the album as an affect. Tom Morello mentioned that when Zack de la Rocha stop Rage Towards The Machine, he thought-about asking Refused’s singer Dennis Lyxzén take his place.
Whereas Refused truly broke up in 1998, just a few weeks earlier than The Form of Punk to Come even got here out, (their final present was in a home in Harrisonburg, Virginia, which coincidentally a good friend of mine lived in twenty years later), the mythos of the band and the imaginative and prescient of The Form of Punk to Come propelled the band to a mythological standing, way more widespread after breaking apart than they ever had been whereas lively. That’s till 2012, when the band started sporadically enjoying reveals once more, up till 2015, once they launched their first album in practically 20 years, Freedom. Refused got here again as an enormous band, propelled by the eye they constantly gathered after splitting up. The band has remained collectively since then, placing out new releases and touring all over the world, particularly the high-paying competition circuit.
The purpose is: Refused is a legendary group. They’re, simply, one in every of my favourite bands and The Form of Punk to Come is likely one of the most vital albums of my life. And I am unable to understate what that meant for me as a child. Listening to this Swedish punk band disassemble not solely punk rock, however capitalism, poetry, and punk rock all inside 12 songs was an enormous deal. If something, they had been the primary punk band I ever heard that was, like, truly good at their devices. I did not totally grasp the politics I used to be listening to on the time, however I felt them, and that feeling means as a lot to me now because it did again then.
Refused performs Samurai in Cyberpunk 2077, and has launched 5 songs below the Samurai identify for the sport’s soundtrack, which you’ll take heed to on Spotify. They’re, in essence, the sound of developer CD Projekt Purple’s Night time Metropolis, the band that scores your journey via its tech dystopia.
On the one hand, I like the truth that a band as political as Refused is in a sport as huge as Cyberpunk 2077. It is scrumptious to me {that a} band that talked about Marxist idea, known as for a dismantlement of capitalist techniques and the reclaiming of artwork and tradition by the working class all within the liner notes of an album will now be proven to the “preserve politics out of video video games” crowd. I really can’t look ahead to them to find a tune like “The Lethal Rhythm,” rife with lyrics in regards to the injustices of labor practices, after pondering Samurai’s rock songs are fairly cool. However I digress.
Alternatively, the songs Refused wrote for Cyberpunk are usually not particularly nice. There are moments when the Refused I do know and love shines – a verse right here or a refrain there – however for probably the most half, the Samurai songs come off as fairly mediocre rock songs. They sound just like the third-best band enjoying a present at a bar on a Tuesday night time. Nothing ever reaches the heights of the remainder of Refused’s constantly robust discography.
The songs recorded as Samurai are Refused at their most toothless. Obscure lyrics about revolution or oppression do little to evoke any emotion within the listener. That is much less the decision to arms previous Refused songs have been, and extra a half-assed acknowledgement that, “Issues are kinda unhealthy, however no matter.”
Possibly that dip in high quality is partly as a result of Refused’s involvement in a sport appears essentially flawed within the first place. The sport business is an instance of what Refused instructed me they had been preventing towards. For all of their creative deserves, video games are additionally industrial merchandise bought by large firms. And people firms supply larger rewards to the folks on the high than the employees who create the video games. Possibly Refused should not be in Cyberpunk 2077 in any respect; however on the similar time, I should not consider that individuals stay the identical folks they had been of their 20s, and that they do not develop up or change sounds.
