Over the last few days I have had some old hardcore punk records on my turntable. Although I have started listening to this kind of music again a couple of months ago, I hardly listened to old records rather bought some new ones. Stupid me, right? Always buying new stuff but hardly listening to old and loved tunes. However yesterday a real classic was spinning on my turntable:
Discharge – Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing
The record is from 1982 but still sounds fresh and aggressive; it made me smile all day. In case you are not familiar with old Discharge – the band went metal on later albums – the music is simple, hard three chord punk that’s played rather fast. No melodies, no breaks. Lyrically the band didn’t add much content either. Mostly short lyrics about war and crimes against humanity. Sometimes the lyrics are as short as this one:
In Agony They Cry And Scream
And Children? And Children. And Children? And Children.
Skin Peeled Hanging In Strips
Though despite all this simplicity the band had been influential to a lot of other bands, not only musically but also lyrically and graphically (black & white record covers, anti-war images,…). The influence went even further with many band names starting with Dis (Disaffect, Disrupt, Disfear,…), most of them appearing on the scene in the early 1990s. But hardly any of them came close to the power and impact of Discharge. Definitely a classic record I will never sell.
Tags: Discharge, Disfear, metal, The influence