Discharge ‎– Realities Of War (1980)

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June 9th 2014 – An absolute classic

Discharge ‎– Realities Of War

Clay Records ‎– CLAY 1 – 1980 – 7″

Image to the left: Discharge.

Noise Not Music! – It’s undisputable that Discharge is the most influential band for the European hardcore scene. Formed in Stoke-on-Trent (UK) in 1977 the band developed from a Sex Pistols sound to a revolutionary sound: heavy, distorted with short peace oriented anarchistic lyrics. The classic line-up with Tezz with his characteristics D-bead drumming, Rainy on bass, Bones on guitar and Cal on vocals can be found on this EP: Realities Of War. It’s not only their first EP, it’s also the first release on Clay after Mike Stone heard them play live. In a furious rampage, the band released two additional iconic EP’s in 1980; Fight Back (Clay 3) and Decontrol (Clay 5) each more aggressive than the previous. For Clay 6, the Never Again EP Garry Maloney from the Varukers managed the drums. It’s important to give credit to the band’s influence on anything from metal, Scandinavian and Japanese D-beat and anarcho-punk. The influences is not only musically but esthetically, just take a look at the sleeve of this EP, black and white print with a stylistic image.

For myself, Discharge was the band that formed my musical orientation. I never heard the EP’s sequential as the first record I encountered was the 12″ Why? from 1981 which made it to number one on the UK indie charts. I don’t know how many parties I been to where Why? and the 1982 LP Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing were the musical center piece. Even today these records still pulverize most stuff out there. As many band, Discharge decided to capitalize on the more popular metal scene resulting in bunch of confusing cross-over releases as from 1983 and onward. As the purist I am, I suggest you stay away from all Discharge releases from 1983 and onwards.

Image to the left: rear opening of the sleeve.

There are two pressings of this seven-inch on Clay records. The first press has no publishing credits on the label. Furthermore, the sleeve have a square die cut opening on the rear of the sleeve, whilst it was curved on the second press of the same year.


Songs: ♬ 4 song EP (MP3 320 kbps) – songs: Realities Of War / They Declare It / But After The Gig / Society’s Victim.

Click on the images to expand them to higher resolution. The rips and images are from my record.


Sleeve



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One comment

  1. Chris

    Amazing 7″…great site, greetings from Costa Rica!!

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