Discharge - The Clay Punk Singles Collection

The Clay Punk Singles Collection is a compilation of early Discharge material that is highly praised as a starting point for new listeners and a definitive collection of their raw, powerful, and influential early sound. Reviews highlight its raw energy, with songs like "Realities Of War" and "Fight Back" cited as "stone-cold punk rock classics" that capture the band at their purest. The collection is seen as essential for understanding how Discharge influenced hardcore punk and even later metal bands.

Originally issued on vinyl in ’87, this collection brings together both early singles by legendary British hardcore band Discharge, as well as some of the better non-LP material recorded before their major slump in the middle eighties. If you’ve read the review of the band’s amazing 1982 album Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing, then you’ve already read me waxing endlessly about this band’s seminal influence and revolutionary approach. The fact is that before they found their signature metal/punk/thrash sound, Discharge was a lot like other ragged UK hardcore punk acts. They didn’t want the rock and roll style of the Sex Pistols or Clash, but they didn’t quite have the ability to play with the power, dynamics and precision that would add so much drama to their sound later on.

But Discharge always knew how to write fine songs, and of the early stuff here, “Realities Of War,” “They Declare It,” “Society’s Victim,” “Fight Back,” and “A Look At Tomorrow” kick serious tail. “Decontrol” introduces a trudging metallic pace that would predict future sounds from the band, while “Never Again” and “State Violence State Control” are simply among the best songs ever penned in this genre. Later singles like “The Price Of Silence” and “The More I See” saw the band’s metallic scale tipping into less urgent and crucial waters, largely because original guitarist Tony “Bones” Roberts had departed the band and was making more serious hardcore with Broken Bones. By the time of the 1986 disaster known as Grave New World, Discharge had gone full on metal, and a drippy, grim and unfocused sort of metal at that. Upon it’s release, the punk community rejected them, the metal dudes new to the band wondered why the band had such a great rep, and Discharge began to sink without too many folks missing them.

They’d be back again, but nothing can match the innovation and reckless, relentless power of their early work.

Ripped to MP3

1. Realities of War

2. They Declare It

3. But After the Gig

4. Society's Victim

5. Fight Back

6. War's No Fairytale

7. Always Restrctions

8. You Take Part in Creating This System

9. Religion Instigates

10. Decontrol

11. It's No T.V. Sketch

12. Tomorrow Belongs to Us

13. Never Again

14. Death Dealers

15. Two Monstrous Nuclear Stockpiles

16. State Violence State Control

17. Doom's Day

18. Warning

19. Where There Is a Will

20. In Defence of Our Future

21. Anger Burning

22. The Price of Silence

23. Born to Die in the Gutter

24. The More I See You

25. Protest and Survive

26. Ignorance

27. No Compromise