The Clay Punk Singles Collection

Originally issued on vinyl in ’87, this collection brings together both early singles by legendary British hardcore band Discharge, as well as some of the better non-LP material recorded before their major slump in the middle eighties. If you’ve read the review of the band’s amazing 1982 album Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing, then you’ve already read me waxing endlessly about this band’s seminal influence and revolutionary approach. The fact is that before they found their signature metal/punk/thrash sound, Discharge was a lot like other ragged UK hardcore punk acts. They didn’t want the rock and roll style of the Sex Pistols or Clash, but they didn’t quite have the ability to play with the power, dynamics and precision that would add so much drama to their sound later on.


But Discharge always knew hoe to write fine songs, and of the early stuff here, “Realities Of War,” “They Declare It,” “Society’s Victim,” “Fight Back,” and “A Look At Tomorrow” kick serious tail. “Decontrol” introduces a trudging metallic pace that would predict future sounds from the band, while “Never Again” and “State Violence State Control” are simply among the best songs ever penned in this genre. Later singles like “The Price Of Silence” and “The More I See” saw the band’s metallic scale tipping into less urgent and crucial waters, largely because original guitarist Tony “Bones” Roberts had departed the band and was making more serious hardcore with Broken Bones. By the time of the 1986 disaster known as Grave New World, Discharge had gone full on metal, and a drippy, grim and unfocused sort of metal at that. Upon it’s release, the punk community rejected them, the metal dudes new to the band wondered why the band had such a great rep, and Discharge began to sink without too many folks missing them.


They’d be back again, but nothing can match the innovation and reckless, relentless power of their early work.