The More I See

The Price of Silence... may have been the point where Discharge dropped the ball, but its follow-up The More I See is where the band chased the ball off a cliff. It's a step further in the hard rock/heavy metal direction the band were taking their music in, and in doing so they totally excised pretty much everything that made the band's music so revolutionary and enjoyable to begin with. It is a horrible release from a band that just a year prior managed to throw in shots of hard rock and heavy metal into their sound while keeping their music's quality mostly intact, and it's another step closer to Grave New World.

On 'The More I See' the band ejects the last modicum of aggression from their music, leaving the song entirely disconnected from the band's roots beyond having a certain punk rock feel to it, courtesy of the drumming and bass giving the song a bounce. The one riff in the song is a bland and trite groovy hard rock riff that wasn't at all interesting or threatening to begin with, to the point of being stale and worn out on arrival. The band cycle between all the guitars playing the riff and the bass alone playing the same riff, which does sound kind of good in a way. Like on the last single instead of propelling the song forward and crashing hard the drums sound muted and weak and merely keep time. Cal Morris' vocal performance is even worse than on The Price of Silence...; while he employs the same set of whiny shouts and yelps now his words bleed together and are difficult to make out, except for when he takes on a sneering tone and holds out words such as 'Seeeee' and 'Belieeeeeeve'. Not only does he sound weak but he is flat out irritating to listen to, as well as making the already weak lyrics (which are far worse than what was heard on even The Price of Silence...) sound even weaker. This song is much longer than anything they've done in the past (a whole 4 minutes); even their best material doesn't have enough ideas to last that long, so this song with a complete lack of convincing performances or worthwhile ideas gets old within the first minute or so.

The other track here is 'Protest and Survive' which is a song from Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing, and it truly highlights everything wrong with 'The More I See'. Here, the band alternate between two highly aggressive and memorable riffs instead of riding out one weak filler riff. The lyrics are just as simple as the previous track but they hit so much harder, partially because they actually say something but also because the vocals are delivered with passion and intensity. The drumming is a similar story; while it's no more complex than on 'The More I See' it hits much harder and the performance really propels the song forward. It's an amazing song from an amazing album, but regardless of its quality, it's been heard before in a much more suitable context (among 13 other songs that it fits in with stylistically), as opposed to being next to a terrible joke of a track, and as such it awards this single no credibility. It is a baffling inclusion of an old song that only makes the new track seem even worse by comparison.

The More I See is another stain on the career of Discharge, and it should be ignored and forgotten.