Discharge – Grave New World

all hater's can do is hate. You either get it... or you don't. YOU DON'T

This album is a total piece of shit. They weren't trying to be ironic. They weren't trying to be Punk -- that's people trying to defend this sonic abortion putting their own spin on it. They have come out numerous times and said they were trying be Heavy Metal and Cal was trying to sound like Robert Plant. It went down like a Lead Balloon as you would expect...

The same people that ironically 'like' Cold Lake will say thy like this rotting garbage and will tell you that they like Charles Manson and Yoko Ono as well.

Anyone that says they like this album has ZERO music credibility.

I had this album for a while because I found it for few bucks and then it started to taint my collection and stink up my room so I shot it into the heart of the scorching sun where every copy belongs...

Loved this album since it came out. Saw them tour and play it in it’s entirety at Jackie Robinson YMCA in National City, CA. in ‘86 or ‘87. Great performance… shitty crowd. They pelted the band with spit and whatever else they had on them. They took it like champs and kept on playing. It honestly looked as if Cal was being sprayed with a hose as he sang. He just shook that shit off and sang like his life depended on it. Some friends and I hung out afterwards and spoke with the band minus Cal, who must have headed straight to a shower. They said this was happening at every show and I could get the sense that they were tired of it and it was kind of like Cal’s call that they didn’t do any old material… that all they needed was to play a few of the older tunes to appease the assholes in the “pit”.

Loved this album since it came out. Saw them tour and play it in it’s entirety at Jackie Robinson YMCA in National City, CA. in ‘86 or ‘87. Great performance… shitty crowd. They pelted the band with spit and whatever else they had on them. They took it like champs and kept on playing. It honestly looked as if Cal was being sprayed with a hose as he sang. He just shook that shit off and sang like his life depended on it. Some friends and I hung out afterwards and spoke with the band minus Cal, who must have headed straight to a shower. They said this was happening at every show and I could get the sense that they were tired of it and it was kind of like Cal’s call that they didn’t do any old material… that all they needed was to play a few of the older tunes to appease the assholes in the “pit”.

Bizarre album given their past, but it is a good album as long as you like metal and have an open mind.

I have never dismissed this album entirely. People who I have met who said liked this record was, usually in a contrarian tone, but never in an in-depth explanation. I respect and almost expect artists to challenge themselves and never be stuck into a mold. To tangle and cultivate the unknown, and present it to palatable minds. That is the duty of an artist. History shows lots of examples of breakthrough works of art, or modes of thinking that at the present were rejected and even humiliated only to be praised and fully comprehended by a new generation of fresh thinkers. There is one man birth that is celebrated around this time of writing this review who had a similar fate that I think most of these lyrics were inspired from, but more on that later. I theorize that this album can expect the same treatment. Early on I sensed there was something I was missing with this album, and there was something behind Cal's radical departure from their explosive prior discography. DISCHARGE are pioneers of a genre which, oddly against so called "punk ethos" required the strictest formula of song writing formula and aesthetic that are still copied, sometimes well, but mostly poorly to this day.

The reaction to the initial release of GNW and the tour that followed can only be compared to Jello releasing his (great) Country Album Jello Biafra & Mojo Nixon & The Toadliquors - Prairie Home Invasion which I'm sure contributed to his attackers at Gilman St who accused him of "selling out". But the hostile reaction to GNW is not due entirely to a musical genre departure but something deeper.

Something clicked with this record when I recently discovered the orphaned lyric insert cleaning up after a "listening pile" avalanche.
After quickly scanning the lyrics I notice that "War" is only mentioned 1 time while words absent from previous releases "love" "peace" and "hope" "don't be afraid" are scattered through out. This immediately instigated a deeper digestion that raised my eyebrows to say the least. I finally discovered exactly why the departure of the "Old Discharge sound" had to make way for this new direction. It is not as radical transition as people make it out to be and lyrical optimism and change of sound can be heard creeping in 83 with Her Majesty EP and Price of Silence single, people preferred the "darkness" of the Old Discharge, and even go so far as get very hostile and visibly upset to the new sound and way. All of this is very natural and I would go as far and say is the way of men.

While prior releases lyric content are poetic masterpieces, the attitude is generally pessimistic and and political. GNW is refreshingly optimistic and dare I say, spiritual. In a world especially day where the mainstream attitude is blackpilled, doomer, pessimistic and "wordly" I would say the true rebels of today are aim for eternal uncompromising Love and optimism. In all directions, this is a very rebellious record. We Dare Speak is a a very relatable story to the celebrated individual I mentioned above.

I would recommend you sit somewhere comfortable with the lyric sheet, open mind and undivided attention. Give this album what would be for many a much deserved "second listen" as I am sure you will at least see it in a different light and maybe a few might even enjoy it.

the sound of an enormous toilet door slamming in the depths of hell.

It’s this or “Into the Unknown” going head to head for the most shocking stylistic change, later to be completely disavowed by the band, follow-up albums by punk bands of the 80s.

Can't believe this train wreck of an album was reissued.

They could have done a Thrash Metal album in 1986 and cleaned up as there was that burgeoning market.. a genre they had influenced .. but they did this instead which was probably a more ''Punk'' thing to do.