DISCHARGE | Protest and Survive

For our spiky friends...

DISCHARGE was a Brit-core band from the early '80s. Label mates with GBH on Mike Stone's infamous Clay Records imprint, DISCHARGE were probably the heaviest Hardcore Punk band of their day, and very powerful in their simplicity. They were arguably the first Hardcore band to blend politically-minded lyrics and punk rock style with metallic overtones. Although many of their songs had similar themes (they seemed obsessed with Nuclear War) and sounded alike, their heavy crunch, provocative look, thought provoking statements and minimal but clean graphic design were all highly influential. They still tour with a new line up playing their vintage material and some new stuff, but it's not the same.

For many of their "Hardcore" fans, the band died a slow, painful death as they progressively became more metal... with the final death knell coming in the form of the hideous "Grave New World" album in 1986 - a cheesy glam metal piss take (Cal really let his hair down for that one). The albums that followed were just as bad. One reviewer wrote "Discharge has traded an iron fist for a limp wrist." And another stated, most effectively, "The more I see, the less I believe."

For punks worldwide, the band's best material was forged in their early years with releases like "Decontrol," "Never Again," "Why?," and "Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing." More tolerable metal tinged 'crossover' singles include "The More I See" and "Ignorance."

Their enduring legacy is best summed up by this classic... "Protest and Survive."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Britcore
• Hardcore
• Punk
• UK
• Clay Records
• Cal
• D-beat

[earthless1990]

btw their "more metal" Massacre Divine kick ass

[unifiedpride]

@earthless1990

Um, I guess you really like "metal"

[Oni64]

Awesome, can u do one for the Hell on Earth/Cries to help song?

[unifiedpride]

The reason I made this vid is there's so few good videos of early DISCHARGE and even fewer good images of them online. This vid has everything I could find (worth using) of the band from the '80s, including photos I took of my own collection of DISCHARGE records! Any new video would just be a rehash of these same images. If I could find some other vintage shots, I might be inclined to do one for "Decontrol" or "Never Again." I might do a GBH one in the future - when I have time.

[moremetalthanyou71]

@cloverleaf164166 Check out Slayer's Dittohead, Nuclear assualt's Critical Mass, Sacred Reich's The American Way, Testament's The Greenhouse Effect, Seoultura's Refuse/Resist, and Territory, Corrosion Of Conformity's Vote with a Bullet, Megadeth's Holywars, 99 ways to die, Symphony Of Destruction, and Sodom's City of God videos if you have doubts on metals political insights. I could go on with more songs. Sorry but your comments really irked me as a metal and punk fan.

[WolfgangVonPoserkila]

@earthless1990 "Massacre Divine" was awful and this is coming from a fan of "Grave New World".

[WolfgangVonPoserkila]

One of the best songs in music history. Very bleak, very angry. Very awesome.

[ThePoohat]

@cloverleaf164166 while 'punk' music did do a lot more politically than 'metal' music, i don't believe it is fair to say that metal contributed nothing. war, oppression, equality and unity are all great topics relating to the whole, but d-beat and other varieties of hardcore punk lacks tonal variation to properly reflect emotion that is not aggression. metal music provided a musical platform for bands to portray issues of religion, personal belonging, mental woes, sex and death. all important.

[gleb202]

This band rocks!

[rodoxxs]

what a fucking great video

DISCHARGE & D-BEAT fucking rule

[TrollMead]

AWESOME VIDEO!!!

[oldmandaddio]

one ov the greatist bands ov the time, should an been fight and survive though the way things still are

:)

[cloverleaf164166]

Brilliant stuff. The brutal black and white images just add to the power and thrust of the song. Great job. Just a shame the buggers went and did all that whiney, 'scream like you're on helium metal rubbish'. I never got it. Don't really want to go there but i could never see the appeal as far as i could see Metal was just for dumb teenagers who hadn't grown up yet but Punk had so much more political and social substance it questioned key social structures. Metal contributed nothing. Cheers

[histatimaniples]

great fucking video!~