So to be completely honest, I’m quite nervous writing this now. Partly because Discharge is one of the best punk bands to have existed and I doubt my words can do them justice, but mainly because Ian Glasper’s review of Discharge’s Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing is probably the best thing I have ever read. It’s so spot-on that it’s hard not to completely plagiarise it, but here’s my best effort at covering Discharge’s Why, the first record I’d heard by them and one I definitely won’t forget.

As Visions of War crackled to life, I remember being hit pretty hard by its immense, dystopian bitterness. Yeah, there’s a lot of other great punk tracks about puking up Special Brew on your Maths teacher, but Discharge’s energy is sinister and real, the blasting of brass in their iconic D-beat clenches tight across Does This System Work, like a huge mechanical monster. A Look at Tomorrow and Maimed and Slaughtered feel grey and menacing with their dirty bass and distorted riffs locked together, Cal roaring injustice down on a foundation of crashing tin. I hope ‘grey’ isn’t misinterpreted as unexciting because shit, there’s something very invigorating about a record that sounds like the world is ending.

Side A’s Why is vastly harsh and powerful with its D-beat boring away, Cal’s vocal heavy with incredulity as toms tumble, but Side B’s Why (Reprise)… well. It feels so full, of a primal kind of pain as Cal wails alongside war sirens but also of a sinister foreboding, riffs inclining perpetually and the cymbals hitting shrill and screaming. Its sound is so raw, yet shiny and mechanical, a combination impossible but glorious. And then begins the descent into audial Armageddon.

Aint No Feeble Bastard hauls us up from the dirt, the bass chortling, guitar strong and steady as the snare clatters. Cal thunders alongside a current of distortion, so tangible it courses along like an instrument of its own – it’s gotta be my top Discharge track.

There can be no understating the gripping intensity of Discharge’s D-beat. It pounds relentlessly throughout Mania For Conquest, its riffs dismal and electric, and creates a metallic wall of sound in Is This To Be, electric guitar firm as it elevates. Its potency and power paved the way for an entire new sub-genre of punk – and having gone to a D-beat night myself, I can tell you that it’s something that can grasp every person in a room by the chest.