DISCHARGE
‘PROTEST AND SURVIVE: THE ANTHOLOGY’
(BMG)
8.5/10
Four long hard decades on from the band’s incendiary debut single ‘Realities Of War’ Discharge release their two-disc ‘Protest And Survive: The Anthology’. To many, including yours truly Discharge was always a band I saw on the back of studded leather jackets, ripped T-Shirts and fly posters in and around the litter-strewn, tramp dwelling underpasses of Hammersmith reality. Opener ‘The Blood Runs Red’ butchers inhibitions with a blunt but bloody cleaver applied to the musical senses and as “Punk” songs from 1982 go, well, it’s fucking brutal, violent and brilliant. ‘Fight Back’ has a distorted Motorhead on speed spine while ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing’ is pure musical turbulence with some throat stripping vocals to boot. The aural attack continues as ‘The Nightmare Continues’, ‘A Look At Tomorrow’ and from 2002’ a prophetic ‘Hype Overload’ contains the “Crack is the new God, black is the new black, style over content, hype overload!” spat out lyrics. ‘A Hell On Earth’ punishes the weak before ‘Protest And Survive’ has an early Megadeth/Anthrax big four influencing and infectious riff. The bruising duo of ‘Ain’t No Feeble Bastard’ and ‘State Violence/State Control’ rattle the temple before ‘You Deserve Me’ continues the Thrash meets Punk Discharge uppercut. Disc one draws to a blistering end with ‘You Take Part In Creating The System’, ‘It’s No TV Sketch’ and the Hardcore screeching guitars on ‘Warning’.
Disc Two is the collecters jewel with re-recordings, demo’s, remixes, extended versions and a new track. It all kicks off with 2004 versions of ‘Hell Is War’, The More I See’ and ‘State Control’. The first demo is ‘I Don’t Care’ which sounds exactly like a demo made in 1977 should as do ‘I Love Dead Babies’, ‘No Time For Romance’ and all three highlights Rotten’s vocal influence on Tezz. The six demos from 2002 have a more polished Slayer sound before the three live tracks act as second disc filler. The pair of ‘Accessories By Molotov’ and ‘Corpse Of Decadence’ get a somewhat disjointed remix which much like this anthology, bizarrely work. The only new cut is the limb snapping ‘Tomorrow Belongs To Us’ and it’s the perfect ending to an imperfect compilation. ‘Protest And Survive’ is a must-have release for fans (new and old) of Thrash, Punk, UK82, Hardcore, Grebbo, Trash, Rock, Speed, Cider and annoying the neighbours.
Discharge will always be that name scrawled on the bog wall, the homemade tattoo, black hoodie and the band, no matter how old or responsible you get, your parents will continue to fucking hate.
Guy Shankland