Refused Release New Single Blood Red

Last month (July 24), Refused announced details of their fifth full-length album War Music, due for release on October 18 via Spinefarm/Search & Destroy.

Ahead of the LP release, Refused have just dropped the official video for lead single Blood Red.

The band have spoken about how the song came together and how it differs from previous album Freedom, which you can read below.

"We didn't play a single show during the making of the last album. It was a long time to be away after the addictive chaos of our reunion shows in 2012," say the band. "Playing to houses packed with maniacs losing their minds right in front of you is a narcotic to rival actual narcotics we'd venture – not our field of expertise, but Keith Richards definitely seems to feel that way, and he's an expert on both.

"So as we went out on tour in the summer of 2015 we were getting pretty high on our own supply, of songs that is. It was amazing, simply put. But it was also obvious that Freedom was, for the most part, a studio record. A great record, to us, but there was something missing as we started playing it live - something visceral, direct, relentless. At a soundcheck somewhere on the road, Kristofer started playing this riff and we all got into it – jamming, as it were. After a while we noticed that our crew had stopped working and that the people working at the venue were standing around watching us play.

"Now, people at venues usually hardly notice you, they've seen a thousand bands more famous than you fool around with their precious ditties as they're re-stocking the bar or setting up barricades. So as we were settling into the riff proper and it started rolling and bouncing the way you're hearing it today, whatever we felt had been missing, it was clear that we had begun to fill that gap. The riff turned into Blood Red, the first song we finished for the new record and the first song we played live off of it. It's fitting that it's now the first song you're gonna hear from the new record because it was truly inspired by you, our live audience, the old and the new, who come out and help us turn every venue into a boiling hot mess. This one's for you."

Refused are touring the United Kingdom with Thrice later this year. Get your tickets now.

Refused UK tour 2019

October

26 O2 Academy, Birmingham
27 Barrowlands, Glasgow
29 O2 Academy, Bristol
30 O2 Brixton, London
31 Academy, Manchester

November

01 Rock City, Nottingham

Read this next:

• The story behind Refused’s The State Of Punk To Come
• 13 records to kickstart the revolution
• How 1994 changed rock music forever