An enormous door slamming in the depths of hell

[cosmic-hearse]

40 years ago, Discharge's 'Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing' was released. Although I personally prefer the previous year's 'Why' (arguably because of the crushing volume of a 45 RPM 12"), this is such a landmark release, both in HC & extreme music in general. Lots of their UK82 peers sound a bit plodding today, but this sounds like it could have been recorded at any time in the past 40 years (not that that's necessary a good thing, but a sign of their vast influence, sonically & aesthetically).

It's interesting how bands like this have such global appeal - you'll see Discharge patches in Malaysia, Poland, Brazil, Japan. A lot of other post punk (in the absolute broadest sense of the word) of the time don't have this; I mean I like, say, Orange Juice but they're incredibly parochial in comparison to the lads from Stoke-on-trent.

[bushwick]

I'm with you on this. Why and HNSNSN are breathtaking records, real timeless force of nature shit. I have enjoyed some "d-beat" bands since, but have always seemed a bit weird and reductive as a genre, just because you can't really follow those Discharge records - they are pure, distilled hardcore, archetypal, and the Zen koan type lyrics and the relentless delivery are a massive part of their greatness. Seems redundant to start a genre trying to capture that.

Lots of the UK stuff of that era sounds dated now, but Discharge don't (US hardcore has aged better to my ears). Conflict, GBH, Chaos UK etc records still pack a punch but they still fit into the "old fashioned" punk vibes, just harder and faster whereas Discharge sounded like they were from another planet. (Amebix also still sound very fresh to my ears, shame about the sword lad's sketchy political turn).

[willbo]

I went through a phase of listening to them a lot. I think Metallica covering a handful of their songs put their fame up a little. I went through a summer of listening to them, Black Flag and Minor Threat for a while.

[bushwick]

I went through a phase of listening to them a lot. I think Metallica covering a handful of their songs put their fame up a little. I went through a summer of listening to them, Black Flag and Minor Threat for a while.

Yes, totally. Whenever I start acting all "too cool for school" coz I liked hardcore punk when I was 12, I need to remember that it was Metallica covering it that got my thrash metal obsessed brain into it. (My move from heavy metal to punk coincided with move from Dungeons and Dragons to skateboarding and probably saved me socially, but that's another story!).

[The Mollusk]

Fucking sick album, god I haven't listened to it in many years now. Will rectify that very soon.

[The Mollusk]

They turned into a glam/funk heavy metal band after this, what the fuck? I had no idea that happened haha.

[cosmic-hearse]

One of history's great missteps

[Shaky]

Their most recent album "End of Days" is a pretty decent return to the old sound, although hardly worth listening to when compared with the strength of the early stuff.

[itsfredtitmus]

Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing escapes me. To my ears Rudimentary Peni's early hardcore influenced stuff is a lot more interesting, certainly no one has a grief howl like Nick Blinko

[jamiefairlie]

Hmmmm, never trusted that whole bunch. Like most of the Goth lot, you could tell they were just old style rockists hiding under punk respectability. It was just a matter of time before their strutting cock rock fantasies would show through.

[The Mollusk]

Hmmmm, never trusted that whole bunch. Like most of the Goth lot, you could tell they were just old style rockists hiding under punk respectability. It was just a matter of time before their strutting cock rock fantasies would show through.

Regardless you surely can't accuse the message of being disingenuous or the music of being tepid though.

[cosmic-hearse]

Hmmmm, never trusted that whole bunch. Like most of the Goth lot, you could tell they were just old style rockists hiding under punk respectability. It was just a matter of time before their strutting cock rock fantasies would show through.

Most of the original band had left by the time of Grave New World, to be fair (admittedly to form the mediocre Broken Bones)

[cosmic-hearse]

Former drummer Dave Ellesmere makes techno these days:

[Glebe]

My brother had this and Why? (possibly still has them stored away), he had a big influence on my musical tastes, introducing me to the world of punk, metal and alternative.

I went through a phase of listening to them a lot. I think Metallica covering a handful of their songs put their fame up a little. I went through a summer of listening to them, Black Flag and Minor Threat for a while.

The line 'Hear nothing, say nothing' in Metallica's 'Dyer's Eve' is surely a tip of the hat to Discharge. On a side note, Metallica apparently ripped the title of ...And Justice for All off Agnostic Front, as detailed here:

AGNOSTIC FRONT vocalist Roger Miret recently spoke to Artisan News about his feelings on the controversy nearly a quarter century after the two albums were issued.

Said Miret: "You wanna know the truth about that? We were in L.A. playing Fenders Ballroom and Kirk Hammett [METALLICA guitarist] came to the show with, I forgot who else... And we were talking about stuff. He goes, 'Hey, man, what's going on?!' I'm like, 'What's going on?' We're just hanging out backstage. And I'm, like, 'Yeah, we're just out here promoting our new record.' He goes, 'What's your new record?' And Stig [AGNOSTIC FRONT guitarist Vinnie Stigma] gave him the record. It was called 'Liberty And Justice For...' Six months later, [METALLICA's] record comes out and it's called '...And Justice For All'. We had it before them and I gave the sticker and everything to Kirk so he could check it out. But it's no big deal."

They turned into a glam/funk heavy metal band after this, what the fuck? I had no idea that happened haha.

Really? Crikey. Seems to have been a thing in the '80s with punk bands going a bit more metally with guitar solos and that but Discharge going glam/funk I can't get my head around.

[Shaky]

I don't really hear the funk thing but glam is definitely accurate - 86's Grave New World is alarmingly close to Guns n' Roses style rawk, even down to the Axl Rose-esque vocals. Sounds like a totally different band. One to file with that terrible Celtic Frost album where everyone thought they'd lost their minds.

[Famous Mortimer]

And the Bad Religion "prog" album (which is actually pretty good).

[Glebe]

And the Bad Religion "prog" album (which is actually pretty good).

I would imagine it sounds a bit Nomeansno?

[Famous Mortimer]

I would imagine it sounds a bit Nomeansno?

I don't think I've heard a Nomeansno song in 25 years, so I'm not sure. But check it out:

[The Mollusk]

I came to the realisation recently that I really don't like Nomeansno. On paper they should be my dream band but they actually irritate me a lot.

[the ouch cube]

Alas, Discharge followed up their glam metal album with equally clumsy and unfathomable bandwagon jumps on Metallica/Testament style Bay Area thrash, and post-Pantera 'groove metal', both about two years too late.

[bushwick]

And then this remarkable move was made. I was well out of guitar music by the time this came out, so I first heard this song maybe ten years ago. I remember Grave New World but I still wasn't expecting this:

[Famous Mortimer]

Every bit of that sounds like it was recorded separately, possibly for 4 different songs, and then inexpertly slapped together. Kind of impressive.

[bushwick]

Every bit of that sounds like it was recorded separately, possibly for 4 different songs, and then inexpertly slapped together. Kind of impressive.

Aye - almost Jandek levels of outsider weirdness to it but that must be side effect of shitloads of whiz/coke (I assume stimulants were involved in making this). The tropes are there of a "normal" edgy but commercial hard rock song but it sounds like an AI bot made it, weird fuckin music.

[Goldentony]

I remember the first time I heard Discharge was in my mates record shop years ago and he'd got a load of the CD reissues in so we sat there listening to them for what I think was the first time and I liked it a lot but it was hard to take seriously  because my mate turned to me to me during the song Doomsday and asked

"is he saying EXCUSE ME, DOOMSDAY?"