Discharge
A hardcore punk band from Stoke-on-Trent, formed in 1977, whose tom-heavy, fast and bleak 1980 to 1982 records gave the D-beat style its name and shaped thrash, grindcore and crust.
Stoke-on-Trent
Discharge formed in Stoke-on-Trent in 1977 around Terence "Tezz" Roberts and Roy "Rainy" Wainwright, with Tony "Bones" Roberts on guitar, and played local gigs for two years without recording. Their influences were the Sex Pistols, the Damned and the Clash. According to a fan history of the Clay years, they chose the name because it was obnoxious. In 1979 the singer and drummer left, Tezz moved behind the kit and Kelvin "Cal" Morris became the vocalist; the old songs were scrapped and the lyrics were rewritten from scratch.
In early 1980 Mike Stone of Clay Records signed them after seeing a show at Northwood Parish Hall. "Realities of War" came out that spring and sold hand to hand from the label's car, reaching the top ten of the Sounds independent chart, and "Fight Back" and "Decontrol" followed the same year. The first gigs outside Stoke came in 1980, in Leicester, Preston and Glasgow.
The records
The 12-inch "Why" (1981) was their first independent number one and the first record made without Tezz on drums; Ian Glasper has called it one of the most potent anti-war records ever made. "Never Again" reached number 64 on the national chart late in 1981. The debut album, Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing, came out on May 21, 1982 and made number two on the independent album chart and number 40 on the main one. Bones left in 1982 and Peter "Pooch" Purtill took the guitar, and the 1983 Warning EP leaned toward metal.
The group's 1980s run ended in 1987 after a US tour, following Grave New World (1986), a glam-influenced metal record that split their audience. Morris re-formed a line-up for Massacre Divine (1991) and Shootin' Up the World (1993) and it ended in 1999. In 2001 Morris, Roberts and Wainwright came back together, saying they could not let the band end on its metal phase, and the self-titled 2002 album returned to the early style. Morris left soon after. Later vocalists included Anthony "Rat" Martin, who left in 2014, and Jeff "JJ" Janiak, who has sung since. Disensitise (2008) and End of Days (2016, Nuclear Blast, number 10 on the UK rock chart) came after.
Sound and legacy
The sound is a stripped version of punk: a rolling snare-and-tom beat that took the name D-beat, a wall of distorted guitar, vocals shouted in short lines, songs often under two minutes, and lyrics about war, nuclear weapons, power and the failures of governments. The words and the covers were deliberately plain.
Discharge's reach outside punk is wide. Their records are credited with feeding thrash, grindcore, death metal, black metal and crust; Napalm Death, Repulsion, Neurosis, Sepultura, Sodom and Celtic Frost are among those who have named them, and Metallica, Anthrax, Sepultura, Machine Head and Arch Enemy have covered them. Tom G. Warrior called the early records a revolution, and James Hetfield nominated Morris in Rolling Stone's poll of great singers. In 2017 the band supported the original-line-up Misfits reunion at the Los Angeles Forum.
Albums
- Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing 1982 · Clay
The 1982 debut album: fourteen songs in under half an hour, number two on the independent chart.
Songs
- Protest and Survive Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing · 1982
Track four of the debut album: two minutes seventeen, its title a turn on the government's Cold War leaflet.
Sources
- Discharge (band), Wikipedia
- List of Discharge band members, Wikipedia
- Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing, Wikipedia
- Discharge, Punky Gibbon
- Discharge, Clay Records 1980, Kill Your Pet Puppy