Descendents

The Descendents invented pop punk. Overstatement? Perhaps, but spend ten minutes scanning FM or the idiot box and you’re bound to witness a ditty or video that tips its hat to a musical genre that was refined to a high art (if not created outright) by the ‘Dents. Formed in 1978 against the fertile musical backdrop of Los Angeles South Bay scene (see: Black Flag, Minutemen, SST Records, etc.), the caffeine-addled crew released their first 7” single Ride The Wild as a trio in 1979. Not long after, the boys recruited one Milo Aukerman (microbiology Ph.D. in waiting and poster boy for adolescent ne’er-do-well alienation) for vocal duties.

Milo’s fervent mic delivery coupled with his knack for hitting the lyrical nail on its heartrending head plunged him headfirst into the band’s fold, and together they released the Fat EP in 1981. 1982 saw the release of the stellar Milo Goes To College, a penultimate fusion of hooks and heartache which inspired the LA Times to write, “perfect for the little guy who was ever called a nerd and never got the girl, (its) earthy humor conveys what is often an inarticulate rage”. And Milo really did go to college, leaving the practice room for the hallowed halls of higher education. Drummer Bill Stevenson went on to beat the skins for Black Flag while the guys temporarily hung up the Descendents moniker, only to reunite with Aukerman for 1985’s I Don’t Want To Grow Up and 1986’s Enjoy!

The two releases comprise the perfect case study in the dualistic, yin/yang nature of the band’s output. While the former is a veritable user’s manual for post-pubescent angst, sizing up the themes of life, love, and uncertainty with infectious wit and dizzying energy, the latter is perhaps most notable for its testaments to the, umm’ follies of flatulence. Their cover of the Beach Boy’s ‘Wendy’ on Enjoy! is at once familiar and revelatory, the perfect amalgam of pop sensibilities and punk execution that would earn them fans the world over.

With the introduction of new members Karl Alvarez and Stephen Egerton on bass and guitar respectively, the release of 1987’s ALL full-length saw a band that had truly come into its own. While the tongue in cheek delivery remained intact, the music had become at once visceral and from the gut, a complex balance of straightforward delivery (‘Clean Sheets’, ‘Coolidge’) and fringe-y, free jam inflections (‘Schizophrenia’, ‘Uranus’). The band toured incessantly throughout the mid and late ‘80s; all that time on the road paid off in spades in the form of two live albums, Liveage! and Hallraker. And then Milo went back to college. The extant members went on to form the band ALL with ex-Dag Nasty vocalist Dave Smalley, continuing their prodigious musical output while maintaining a hectic tour schedule. It was not until 1996 that we'd see another Descendents release with Everything Sucks, a perfect return to the pop punk form that the band had become known for.

Fast forward to 2003, and lo and behold, the Descendents are back in the saddle with two new efforts slated for the release in 2004: a four song EP entitled Merican, and a bona fide full-length LP's worth of new material that goes by the name Cool To Be You. Seeing as how punk is now a household name, and the ubiquitous “girl song” milieu infests the airwaves, will the Descendents reclaim their title as Kings of the Lovelorn Anthem? Only time will tell, but this much is certain: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Descendents must go to sleep with flushed cheeks every night of the week.

Descendents Discography

Circle Jerks

Formed in 1979 by Black Flag vocalist Keith Morris and Redd Kross guitarist Greg Hetson, the Circle Jerks combined the rebelliousness of the Sex Pistols and Ramones with the aggressive athletic elements of the surfer/skateboarder crowd from Hermosa Beach. This coastal city just south of Los Angeles ignited the initial explosion of hardcore bands. Including bassist Roger Rogerson and drummer Lucky Lehrer, the band recorded their debut album, Group Sex, in 1980 on Frontier Records. Containing 14 tracks, the songs ranged in length from 1:35 to 27 seconds, taking the hyper blast of punk to the next extreme. With the release of the album, an appearance in the documentary film about L.A. punk The Decline of Western Civilization, and their incendiary live performances, the group's stature was assured in the budding hardcore community.

Their second LP, 1982's Wild in the Streets, continued the intensity while injecting a humorous slant into the music by covering '60s pop hits "Just Like Me"/"Put a Little Love in Your Heart," applied with their slamdancing aggression. The joke was expanded on Golden Shower of Hits, their third album, released in 1983. The second time around they tackled "Along Comes Mary," "Afternoon Delight," "Having My Baby," and "Love Will Keep Us Together." Golden Shower also marked the incorporation of a few longer songs that hovered around the three-minute mark, including "Under the Gun," "High Price on Our Heads," and "Rats of Reality." At this point the band took a two-year break, which found Hetson joining the newly formed Bad Religion, taking on guitar duties for both bands well into the next decade.

In 1985 the Circle Jerks returned with two new bandmembers, Keith Clark on drums and bassist Zander Schloss, releasing the metal-tinged Wonderful album on the Combat label. The group's new approach received mixed reviews, as their hard and fast thrash was slowed down and replaced by an explicit hard rock thump, which carried over to their next Combat release in 1987, VI. The band kept a low profile into the '90s, with the only Circle Jerks record being the 1992 anthology of concert performances titled Gig. By 1995, the band released its first new studio album in eight years, Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities, their major-label debut on Mercury. A highlight among the 12 tracks was a cover version of the Soft Boys' "I Wanna Destroy You," featuring a truly odd vocal appearance by Circle Jerks' fan Debbie Gibson, who would sporadically show up at gigs and perform the song with the band!

By 1996 the years of rough touring caught up with the bandmembers and once again they went on hiatus. Morrisin particular had been plagued by serious health problems, including a back injury that forced him to wear a brace, colon and stomach problems including appendicitis, and a 1999 diagnosis of adult onset diabetes. Since Morris had no health insurance, benefits were held to curtail his enormous medical bills, allowing the now dreadlocked lead singer to begin recuperating. In 2003 Morris was well enough to play live gigs with his spoken word jazz-punk ensemble Midget Handjob, and also tour with the Circle Jerks and the Rollins Band. An appearance on the Henry Rollins' orchestrated benefit album Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three would bring Morris full circle with a performance of "Nervous Breakdown," a track he initially recorded in 1978 with the first incarnation of Black Flag.

Biography by Al Campbell

Circle Jerks Discography

Kaaos

Kaaos was a hardcore punk band from Tampere, Finland. Formed in March 1980, they were one of the first hardcore punk bands in Finland to release a record (the first being Rattus, at a time an ordinary -77 style punk band), and though their lineup has changed frequently through the years, the band is somewhat active thorugh the years. Only the band's guitarist Jakke (who later became the vocalist) remained as the original member and grew to become the center figure of Kaaos.

Jakke died on 29 November 2007. He apparently died of alcohol-related causes at the age of 42.

Kaaos has been described as having "the trademark Finnish 80s sound, fast buzzsaw thrash riffs, reverby vocals, all over the place drumming, and plodding bass."Their music defined what HC punk means for Finns and their EP "Totaalinen Kaaos" released on Propaganda Records became one of the bestselling Finnish EP records ever. Two years later the band released the LP "Ristiinnaulittu Kaaos" on Barabbas Records that was also quite successful.

While their early songs became known to be focused on the local authorities (the police) they always criticized not only the government, but also how different beliefs and religions are used to justify war and the suffering war causes. They also sang about day to day violence they had to meet on the street as punks in their day and many other personal topics, yet keeping true to the anarcho punk view.'

Jakke started out as a guitar player in a band called Porttikielto according to his own words back in 1978. They played a gig or two at the early Tampere punk club called "Safety pins", which was the place where more better known and legendary Tampere punk

bands like Eppu Normaali,  Sensuuri and Karanteeni started from. According to him "we would laugh at the hippies who tried to `get with it` and we would keep the teddy boys away just by our numbers. No problem"

Later on "older" punks from the band Nivelreuma asked him to join a new band called Amiraali Nelson, named after Admiral Nelson and the brand of beer named after him which was popular at the time. This band went on to record one song on a compilation album called Kolme vuotta myöhemmin ("Three years later") in 1980.

In early 1980 Jakke "threw out some of the older people" and renamed the band Kaaos ("Chaos"). The shift was to make sure that no new wave type of influences or people in the band would be allowed. Although Crass was already an influence, hardcore as such was not so at that point. However, the band started to play faster and more chaotic and adopted the studded leather jacket, spikey haired and mohawked image many would emulate later on quite quickly. At this time, this was unheard of even in the Finnish punk scene which was in the midst of evolving from "punk" into new wave into corporate "Finnish rock". This harsher sound and look was just not something anybody expected or wanted.

In the fall of 1981 the group recorded a split ep with Cadgers (who later evolved into Riistetyt. Their side of the ep, though re-presses might omit the name, is called "Kytät on natsisikoja" ("Cops are nazi pigs") featuring song of the same name, which has been a Finnish hardcore classic and a definitive song of the genre ever since. However, Jakke who is considered the legendary vocalist of the band does not sing on the song or on the recording. He will, hower, play the guitar.

After many line up changes, which were to follow the band until the end, Kaaos released "Totaalinen Kaaos"-ep which is, by many considered to be their finest release and which is in Finnish punk culture one of the most definitive records of the "82-hardcore" style of Finnish hardcore, named after the year this and some other classical Finnish hardcore punk records came out, all released by local independent labels. At this point, Kaaos also became to be known outside Finland mostly because of tape trading and for the fact that their releases were sold and traded abroad. However this did not help them back home. Gigs were scarce and their next release Valtio tuhoaa, ei rakenna ("Government destroys, not builds") was not released until the nineties.

In 1984 the band released their only real full-length album, Ristiinnaulittu Kaaos ("The crucified Chaos.") and a split lp with Terveet Kädet, although Terveet Kädet later made a point about never wanting to play in Tampere because bands like Kaaos rejected their too "humorous" lyrics, preferring to sing more about topics related to anarchism. Since Terveet Kädet has played in Tampere later on, this feud might have been settled.

They also recorded their "last" ep, Nukke. ("The Doll") Which was released eight years later. At this point the sound of the band had perhaps evolved to a point that Jakke and the bass player Nappi formed the band Kuolleet Kukat which had a style more in the vein of Amebix and post punk. They released one ep and recorded one ep more, before also disbanding. Then re-surfacing in the nineties to record new material, then dispanding again. In the late nineties and early 2000 Jakke and Nappi also had a band called Positive/Negative which played more straight forward, crust influenced anarcho punk.

In November 1999, Kaaos played a show in Lepakko, the former squat in Helsinki where they and many other legendary early hardcore had shared the stage in the early eighties. The gig was the very last gig before the building was demolished to make wave for an office building for Nokia. Even though the band shared the stage with such contemporaries as Riistetyt, Appendix and Terveet Kädet, the "original line up" did not manage to play well and was considered a "novelty act" at best and a "disgrace" by those who saw them. Despite all this, the gig was a starting point of a revival of many old school Finnish hardcore bands, even to many who did not play there that night.

Kaaos came up with a new line up that after doing a split ep with Svart Agression and some compilation tracks, put out the mini-lp Ismit ("isms"), which was a very mature release, delivering the Kaaos sound but not trying to update much to the "crustie" style they missed out on themselves but also helped to influence.

After playing and touring, this incarnation of Kaaos also deteriorated. The last gig Kaaos ever had was at the release party of the book "Parasta lapsille" in October 2007 in Tavastia. This was again with the "original line up" that was not allowed to rehearse, so what was heard was mostly embarrassing. In the end of the show, Jakke also gave a long speech nobody could hear since he did not seem to realize the microphone was cut off. He died in his sleep a little over a month later.

Source: Wikipedia

Kaaos Discography

Negazione

Negazione was a hardcore punk band based in Turin, Italy during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Formed in 1983, they were one of the most important bands of the hardcore punk scene in Italy at the time, alongside Raw Power, Wretched, Declino and Indigesti.

Among the many groups that in the mid-80s animated the Italian hardcore punk scene Negazione were among the most original. Born in Turin in 1983 by the union of Guido "Zazzo" Bailer (vocals), Roberto "Tax" Farano (guitar) and Marco Mathieu (bass), their line-up would always include these three members, with a continuous rotation of drummers.

Their career began officially in 1984 with the publication of the tape Mucchio Selvaggio , a split cassette with Declino, which was followed by the EP's Tutti Pazzi (Subvert, 1985) and Condannati a Morte nel Vostro Quieto Vivere  (self-released, 1985). These recordings are punk, vulgar and unrestrained, which still gave way for an emotional intensity that would continue to be their trait.

The style of Negazione found it's ultimate expression on the LP, Lo Spirito Continua (De Konkurrent, 1986), thought of as one of the best Italian rock albums of all time. Departing from the path of minimalistic punk, the group are found performing more articulate songs, with sharp changes of tempo and an atmosphere found more often in more "musical" genres. For example, the title track opens with a soft guitar arpeggio that picks up speed until it flows into thrash punk intensity, constantly broken up by mid-tempo changes.  The album stands out in a scene dominated by brakeneck speed riffs and hysterically screamed vocals.  Contributing significantly to the success of the album are the lyrics of Bailer, able to speak to the disillusioned youth whilst at the same time remaining lyrical, angry, poetic and vulgar, cynical and epic.

Little Dreamer (We Bite, 1988) was not as effective. Although the style was the same as the previous album, the creativity behind each song was inferior. Even the albuns best moments, like Il Giorni del Sole, proved to be much more predictable previous efforts.

Even less inspiring are the EP's 1989: Behind the Door (We Bite) and Sempre in Bilico (We Bite). The anthology Wild Bunch (We Bite, 1989) was a collection of the band's early recordings.

100% (We Bite, 1990) proved to be Negazione's swan song. A mixture of the melodic punk of Bad Religion and the grunge of Mudhoney, the record was released at the wrong time:  too late for the alternative public, too early for the mainstream.

The lukewarm reception with which the was album was greeted this album decreed the break up of the band in 1992. Vocalist Guido "Zazzo" Bailer joined Peggio Punx , guitarist Roberto "Tax" Farano began collaborating with Fluxus whilst bassist Marco Mathieu took to music journalism, working for publications such as Metal Hammer and  Rumore.  

Source: Wikipedia.  Biography by Piero Scaruffi, translated by Besatt.

Negazione Discography

Gauze

The original plan according to Shin, the bass player, was to play as fast as possible. They attempted to give the impression of playing fast without actually playing fast. The first Gauze recordings are the tracks from the City Rocker compilation LP with features other New Wave bands and Gauze doing 10 songs. They covered Discharge’s "No TV Sketch", but the song title is "Anti-Machine". They released 1984's Fuckheads LP on ADK Records.

Equalizing Distort was released in 1986. They released the Genkai Wa Doko Da (“What’s the Limit?”) LP in 1989, and in 1991 they played a 10th anniversary gig, where they played three sets covering the 3 periods they had gone through in the last 10 years. They played 51 songs over these 3 sets. In 1996, they began a US tour, though it lasted just three shows - a fourth was scheduled, but was cancelled. They played at Gilman St. in Berkeley, at the Bomb Shelter in Minneapolis and in Chicago at the Fireside Bowl. They also recorded songs for a 7” that came out on Prank a little after this, while they were in SF.

Their 12” Kao O Aratte Denaoshite Koi was released in 1997 (translated as “Go wash your face and come back” - a Japanese expression used after someone is physically beaten by someone else).

Gauze is a long-running and (relatively) prolific group. They’ve released five albums through 2007, though it should be noted that these "albums" never run more than twenty minutes in length.

When I was first getting into hardcore, Gauze was the only Japanese band that anyone knew about. Hilariously, almost every Japanese record reviewed in Maximum Rocknroll would be compared to Gauze, however crazily dissimilar they sounded. 

In fact, Gauze is a terrible frame of reference, because they don’t really sound like anyone else. The only comparable group is maybe Infest, not so much because they sound identical, but the frantic pacing and outlandish vocals share a "sensibility," as they say. Almost all other fast, decidedly unmelodic hardcore runs together, but these two bands are crisp without being over-technical, catchy without sacrificing speed, and aggressively raging without any trace of metal attitude. 

Gauze isn’t an ideal "gateway" band into Japanese punk. One could trace the various members and side-projects of Death Side, in much the same way that a jazz novice can move outward from Miles Davis' sidemen—but Gauze’s is a closed universe. Their influences are obscure to me, even now, and their aesthetic, while baffling, is less over-the-top than, say, G.I.S.M.'s., who once threw an x-ray of a blowjob on an album cover.

Gauze was well known for reasons that made a lot of sense before the internet. Not because they were accessible, musically, but because they had a record on an American label, Prank Records. In 1996, Gauze "toured" the US, playing a handful of shows in far-apart cities, and recorded a six-song EP while on our beauteous shores. 

Even in Japan, where their live sets are essentially "workshops" for new material, Gauze plays rarely. For their 25th anniversary show, they recreated each album meticulously, switching to antiquated instruments and equipment in order to perfectly recreate a sound. This is cutesy when the Cure does it, but strangely moving when Gauze (only slightly younger than the Cure) blast through 50 songs in a single night.

Gauze's idea of hardcore is not sophisticated. It is a blunt instrument. There are no guitar solos, no frills: simply high-speed, tuneless ranting. Unlike much Japanese hardcore, it is not "big." Gauze blows you away, not with 200 Marshall stacks and a fuck ton of dry ice, but through expertly honed riffs and pneumatic precision. The simple goal appears not to be so much to entertain the audience as to outlast and overload them. In the great tradition of punk's antagonism towards its audience, this may be the most subtle and cruel approach of all.

Source: Wikipedia.  Biography by Ben Parker

Gauze Discography

Crass

The brittlest and most hard-line radical of the first wave of British punk bands, Crass issued a blitz of records that were ruthless in both their unrelenting sociopolitical screeds and their amelodic crash of noise. The horrors of war, the arbitrary nature of legal justice, sexism, media imagery, organized religion, the flaws of the punk movement itself -- all were subjected to harsh critique. Like few other rock bands before or since, Crass took rock-as-agent-of-social-and-political-change seriously, and not just in their music. In addition to putting out their own fiercely independent records (though the majors were certainly not knocking at their door), they also formed an anarchist commune that worked with other artists and labels, and on the behalf of various political causes. But they were also afflicted by considerable tension between the medium and its message -- not more than a few thousand people were exposed to Crass' very broad social concerns, and their musical inflexibility guaranteed that the band would be preaching to the converted almost exclusively.

In keeping with early punk ethos, Crass assumed obviously fake stage names. The membership changed a bit over the years, but the group's mainstays were vocalists Steve Ignorant, Eve Libertine, and Joy de Vivre. Drummer Penny Rimbaud and G. Sus, who did tape collages and provided the distinctively bleak black and white artwork on the fold-out posters that usually enclosed their LPs, were also important contributors. Their late-'70s recordings may sound like just so much hardcore punk decades later. But at the time they were indeed shocking assaults of noisy guitars and relentless drumming, backed by throaty, angry rants that were made incomprehensible to many ears by the heavy British accents and the sheer speed of delivery.

They were the definitive uncompromising punk band, which guaranteed them a cult following of very disaffected youth, and also ensured that they would never come remotely close to mainstream exposure, or even to many new wave playlists. An undiluted lyrical message was far more important to Crass than commercial considerations, and until 1984 they cranked out anarchist-leaning recordings without much variation in their attack. Occasional experimental cuts were promising variations on their format, particularly when they branched into tape collage, or spoken poetry. Those were largely the exception rather than the rule, though Crass weren't without the occasional moment of humor.

Crass always intended to disband in 1984, and true to their ideals as always, they did exactly that when that year came around. Even for those with no taste for the band's brand of confrontational punk, they deserve recognition as one of the relatively few acts in the music who attempted to live their values, and not just sing about them.

Biography by Richie Unterberger

Crass Discography

Totalitär

Totalitär are one of the most influential d-beat punk bands of all time.  Originating in the "silver age" of Swedish hardcore from the mid to late Eighties, Totalitär created a pounding take on d-beat hardcore that many bands all over the world today still pay homage to.

Formed in Hudiksvall, a small town in Northern Sweden, in 1985, the original members were Poffen (vocals), Lanchy (guitar), Andreas (bass) and Lennart (drums), with Jallo Lehto (Disfear, No Security, Dischange and Meanwhile amongst many others) later replacing second drummer Jesper on drums.  The band shared members with the infamous Brainbombs and Jesper and additional guitarist Jörgen later formed The Kristet Utseendet.

Always lyrically astute, often referencing capitalism and mutlinational corporations, Totalitär had a prolific period of releasing classic records from the late 80's to mid 90's.  Although the band has a vast discography of four lp's as well as a literal heap of seven inch singles and splits with amongst others, legendary bands like Dropdead, Discolse and Tragedy, they seldomly played live.

The band went on their first hiatus in 1994, but soon returned with Finn Records releasing their first full Sin Egen Motståndare, which today ranks as an absolute cornerstone of the genre.  A slew of recordings continued, as well as a fanzine titled Antisystem, until they disbanded again in 2000.  Totalitär returned again in 2006 and released the Vi Är Eliten lp on Prank Records from San Fransisco before once again becoming dormant.

Members of Totalitär today play in bands such as Instiution, Disssekerad, Makabert Fynd and Kvoteringen.  There are rumours now and then of another coming together but as of yet the band is still inactive.

Totalitär Discography

Anti Cimex

Anti Cimex were a Swedish hardcore punk band, based in Skövde, Göteborg, Linköping, and Malmö, at different times, that formed in 1981. They were one of the first bands to define Scandinavian hardcore punk. Their second 7", Raped Ass, is considered to be a subgenre-defining D-beat record. Scene historian Peter Jandreus describes the group as the most famous Swedish punk band of the 1977–87 era.

Their name is taken from the Swedish pest control company with the same name, the name of this company, in turn, comes from the Latin name of a particular type of bedbug; Cimex.

Formed in 1981, the original line-up was: Jonsson - Bass, Nillen - Vocals, Charlie - Drums, Jocke - Guitar. After rehearsing for a while, they released their first 7" EP Anarkist Attack.  In 1982 they kicked out Nillen. Jonsson took over the vocals part, and Conrad took over the bass playing. The next 7" EP, called Raped Ass, was released in 1983.  This work is considered one of the most severe in the history of hardcore.  In 1984 they released another 7" EP, Victims Of A Bomb Raid.  In 1986 they released a mini-Lp called Criminal Trap. (This 12" is also included as a bonus on the Absolut Country of Sweden CD). At this time Jocke had got tired of the band and they asked Cliff if he wanted to join the band but he said no, and the rest of the band members got tired of the problems and it resulted in the band splitting up.

In 1990 they decided to start the band again after Cliff had agreed to join, and they say that its thanks to him that they regrouped. They released the comeback album Absolut Country Of Sweden the same year, . In 1993 they released a raw live album Made In Sweden. The show was also shot on video but never released. They later released a new live 7" single Fucked In Finland and later on they released the album Scandinavian Jawbreaker. After the release of this album the band split up and the members started in other bands such as Driller Killer (Cliff), and Wolfpack (Jonsson)

In 2005 Dead City records released the A Tribute To Anti-Cimex LP, featuring a line-up of D-beat and Crust bands from all over the world that were influenced by Anti-Cimex. Notable bands include Disclose (Japan), Wolfbrigade (Sweden), Ratos de Porão (Brazil), Doom (UK), and many more.

Source: Wikipedia

Anti Cimex Discography

Discharge

A long-lived British hardcore band cited as a key influenced by artists including Metallica and Anthrax.  Discharge was formed in 1977 by singer Terry "Tez" Roberts, his twin brother and guitarist Tony "Bones" Roberts, bassist Roy "Rainy" Wainwright, and drummer Hacko. New frontman Cal was recruited as the decade drew to its close, with Tezmoving to drums as a replacement for the exiting Hacko. The first band signed to the newly formed Clay Records label, Discharge issued their debut EP, Realities of War, in March of 1980, followed later that year by two more EPs, Fight Backand Decontrol. Tez left the lineup soon after, and after recording the Why 12" with temporary drummer Bambi, Discharge named Garry Maloney their permanent skinsman in time to record 1981's Never Again, which reached the number 64 spot on the U.K. pop charts.

In 1982, Discharge finally issued their long-awaited full-length debut Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing, which reached the Top 40; a U.S. tour followed, and upon returning home, the group recorded a new single, "State Violence, State Control." Bones then left to form his own unit, Broken Bones, and was replaced by guitarist Peter "Pooch" Pyrtle for the EP Warning: Her Majesty's Government Can Seriously Damage Your Health. In the wake of another 7", "The More I See," both Pyrtle and Maloney departed; the singles collection Never Again followed in 1984, and with new guitarist Les "The Mole" Hunt and drummer Nick Haymaker, Discharge released "Ignorance" a year later. Maloney returned to the fold for the 1986 LP Grave New World, which also featured new guitarist Stephen Brooks, this album would firmly take the band into more heavy metal territory, leaving a lot of their old hardcore fans behind.

Wainwright was the next to go, and Discharge spent the next several years in limbo, occasionally releasing live material from their heyday. Finally, in 1991 the group returned with a new album, Massacre Divine, followed by Shooting Up the World. By 1997, the classic lineup of Cal, Bones, Rainy, and Tez had re-formed; around that same time, a tribute album titled Discharged celebrated the band's continuing influence. Similarly, Metallica's 1998 collection Garage, Inc. featured two Discharge covers -- "Free Speech for the Dumb" and "The More I See." Time would go by before the group made any new music, but in 2002 they released an eponymous album featuring the original lineup.

The classic Discharge sound influenced a whole genre of hardcore punk, known as crust punk, or d-beat, named for the distinctive drum beat, guitar interplay.  Many bands since have taken to adding "Dis" to the start of their monikers in honour of the legendary band, including the likes of Disfear, Disorder, Disrupt, Disclose and many hundreds of others.

The band exist today with Rat from Varukers on vocals.

Biography by Jason Ankeny

Discharge Discography