Fittingly for a band whose swansong promised to redefine the nature of punk, Refused’s Dennis Lyxzén has opted to stamp his latest project with the ‘post-punk’ mould. However, while ‘The Shape Of Punk To Come’ was lauded for its forethought, with INVSN Lyxzén has merely created a checklist for the 80s revival – a hark back to an era that his most famous work helped the world move away from.
“A storm is coming,” promises opening track ‘#61’, but unfortunately it never seems to break. The rolling, aimless synths and plodding drums continue throughout the album, creating little more than a soundtrack to your favourite teen movie. Lyxzén’s Scandinavian twang alternates between charming and grating with little consistency – the fact that this is the first INVSN album to be written and recorded in English lends the vocal an almost hesitant tone, which unfortunately leads to some of the more empowering lyrical motifs falling flat amongst their mid-tempo backdrop.
The album is not without its high points, with the melodic hook in ‘Down In The Shadows’ recalling the kind of chart-bothering industrial soundtracks that Nine Inch Nails made themselves a household name on, and the occasional gem of a chorus poking its head through the fog to offer a fleeting moment of euphoria – but taken as a whole ‘INVSN’ struggles to leave much of an impression.
It is a somewhat tragic inevitability that the new projects from members of seminal bands will always be haunted by their pasts. That said, it’s disheartening to see a musician whose previous work was so boundary-breaking play it so safe when given free run of the landscape he helped create – far from the shape of punk to come, this is an idle throwback to the way things used to be.
TOM CONNICK