Discharge (band)

Career

Discharge got their start in 1977 in Stoke-on-Trent, founded by Terence "Tezz" Roberts on vocals and Royston "Rainy" Wainwright on guitar. They quickly brought in Roberts' younger brother Anthony "Bones" Roberts on lead guitar, Nigel Bamford on bass, and Anthony "Akko" Axon (also known as "Hacko") on drums. Their early sound took cues from 1977 punk acts like the Sex Pistols, the Damned, and the Clash. With manager Tanya Rich, they cut their first demo and hit the road opening for bands such as The Ruts, The Clash, and The Damned.

Axon and Bamford both left before the year was out, so the band pulled in their roadie Kelvin "Cal" Morris to sing, shifted Tezz Roberts to drums, and moved Wainwright to bass. This new lineup ditched the old Sex Pistols-style material and forged a tougher sound. Anthony Roberts played guitar with a heavy, grinding distortion, while Morris shouted and screamed without melody. The bass tone was described as an "immense gurgling over-driven" roar, and the songs got faster over the following year.

The lyrics turned darker, more nihilistic, and violent, hammering on anarchist and pacifist ideas, the horrors of nuclear war, and the damage caused by capitalism. Like Crass, they embraced anarchism and used the anarchist symbol. Their album art also drove home these themes, using stark black-and-white photography to show war's brutality. A standout image was the "Impaled Dove," taken from a 1930s John Heartfield anti-war poster, showing a dove stuck on a bayonet.

The first show with this revamped lineup and sound happened at Northwood Parish Hall. In the crowd was Mike Stone, a local record shop owner who ran the Clay Records punk label.

Influence

As well defining the D-beat subgenre, Discharge influenced bands operating within other types of extreme music. Decibel magazine states that there are few bands who have had more influence over so many different scenes than Discharge, including the first generation of thrash, grindcore, and hardcore groups. Discharge's influence on heavy metal is incalculable and metal superstars such as Metallica, Anthrax, and Sepultura have covered Discharge's songs in tribute.

Some photos of Metallica, Anthrax and Exodus band members from the early 1980s show them wearing Discharge T-shirts. Thrash metal groups like Metallica and Slayer were inspired by their speed and brutality. Anthrax was already playing Discharge cover songs by 1983. In an interview with The Guardian in 2016, the band was cited as a primary influence on the avant-garde metal group Neurosis.

The band's singer/guitarist Steve Von Till stated that Discharge bridged the gap between Motörhead, Venom and punk rock with their huge wall-of-sound guitar. Early grindcore acts such as Napalm Death and Repulsion were influenced by Discharge, as were death metal acts such as At the Gates and Nihilist. Discharge were also crucial to the development of crust punk, influencing many of the first crust bands, such as Doom, Hellbastard and Antisect. Other artists citing Discharge as an influence include Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Sodom, Holocausto, Sepultura, Sarcófago, Attila Csihar, Blasphemy, Queens Of The Stone Age, Machine Head, Prong, Dogstar, and Slipknot. James Hetfield of Metallica nominated Cal Morris for Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Singers poll.