New World Discharge

Discharge's Grave New World album has a reputation... and it isn't a good one. I've heard people tearing down this record for years, but I'd never actually listened to it, and just accepted the critiques on blind faith. However, when I saw the record was available from Tim's collection, alongside a few of the band's classics, I figured that maybe the time was right to see if it was as bad as everyone says.

After seeing that Jeff had Grave New World available from Tim's collection, I immediately queued it up on Spotify to listen to it on the car ride home. Sometimes I can enjoy the shambles of a band trying to do something different, so I was kind of excited to check out this messy Discharge (yes, I'm aware of how that sounds)... however, I only made it partway into the second song when I texted Jeff from the car to say no thanks and that he could sell it through eBay. It was a rough listen and I could easily see why people generally do not like this album. But then months later when I was posting about the Ignorance record from Discharge, I thought that I might want to try Grave New World again.

Look, I totally get why people wouldn't like this album, but there is something about being the contrarian that attracts me, and after approaching Grave New World knowing what to expect, I didn't think it was terrible. Sure it's A TERRIBLE DISCHARGE RECORD, but taken out of that context I found that I could kind of enjoy it (although it would be better if they cut the 15 minute long song The Downward Spiral). Since I have affection for owning bad records from bands that I really like, I reached back out to Jeff to see if he still had that copy of Grave new World. My luck, my loss... he did.

Mania For Conquest

One of the cooler things that I've discovered in going through Tim's old collection has been just how much I love those early Discharge records. I picked up both the Warning and Ignorance singles early when I started going through his stuff, and when I saw the Why 12 inch in the latest back from Jeff, I was excited to grab that one too.

Discharge's Why 12 inch was their earliest record that was available from Tim's collection, and it comes at you harder than the other records I've picked up from them. With the record cover photos of dead children, and ten tracks that clock in at a total of 15 minutes, this record is raw and heavy. It's so good and I've had it on repeat the last few days. It's over so quick and I'm left wanting more.

This is probably the last classic Discharge record that I was able to scoop from Tim's collection, but now that I've picked up a few of them, I'm itching for more.

Discharge Ignorance

I've never really paid too close attention to Discharge, so I wasn't terribly familiar with their entire discography. One thing that I did know though was that people hate the Grave New World album from 1986. Now of course I'd never heard that record, but I blindly avoided it based on it's bad reviews. The Ignorance single from Discharge was released the year before Grave New World, and the cover photo of them with sunglasses, tanktop and slicked back hair gave me the vibe that the band was trying for some kind of different style and maybe making musical changes that fans did not like. I didn't trust it.

When I was going through some records that recently became available from Tim's collection, I noticed the Ignorance 12 inch, and I figured that I'd check it out before passing on it. While this is a different sound than the early Discharge singles, holy shit, I fucking love the two songs here. Maybe there are some metal influences creeping in, and it has more of a crossover vibe, but this is the shit that I love. So glad that I gave this a chance.

This has me feeling adventurous. Hmmmm... maybe time to check out Grave New World?

Discharge Warning

In my previous life as a fool, I didn't really like Discharge. I picked up the Clay Punk Singles CD around 1990, and it didn't hit me the way that bands like Sick Of It All and Cro-Mags were, and it wasn't as catchy as Clay Records labelmates, G.B.H., so I shelved that CD pretty quick, and remained pretty indifferent to the band for the next 25 years or so. When I was obsessed with collecting G.B.H. singles around 2015, I figured that I'd check out Discharge again, and while I enjoyed them enough to add their stuff to my iTunes, I was never moved enough to chase down their records.

When I was going through Tim's collection I wasn't surprised to find some Discharge in there. This totally makes sense and it something that I would expect that he was into in the early/mid-80's. Seeing this Warning 12 inch single in there made me want to check out Discharge again, and holy shit, I've been loving it. No big deal, just me showing up 40 years late to the party.

I don't know why I wasn't getting this back in the late 80's/early 90's. It is stripped down, raw and aggressive. Fuck, this is so good and right now I can't get enough of it. Give me more of this.