A
punk rock
landmark if ever there was one,
Discharge
's
Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing
is one of the most bleak, angry albums to ever grace the underground. The album is important on all sorts of levels, from what it did to the British
hardcore
scene to the long-lasting effect it had on
heavy metal
. And the worst part is that time has slowly erased the album from the minds of
punk
rockers, although the
tendencies of the band had always made them outcasts in their own scene. But this is the real thing, filled with bitter tirades against the government and predicting all-out nuclear destruction with chilling detail. The unrelenting pound of the music would create a huge movement in the
world, starting first in their own country where bands like
the Exploited
would bring the
metal
sound into their music. Within a few years, bands like
D.R.I.
,
Agnostic Front
Stormtroopers of Death
, and
Suicidal Tendencies
would make similar
-flavored
in the States. On the other side of the spectrum, the brutal chugging of the guitars would be a huge influence on the developing
thrash
scene.
Anthrax
Metallica
Megadeth
Slayer
were its earliest champions, while later bands like
Helmet
and
Pantera
would also credit the band with inspiration. Time has hardly dulled the effect of the music; this still sounds as relevant as it did in 1982 if only because the song topics are fairly timeless. Tracks like
"Protest and Survive,"
"Hell on Earth,"
"Free Speech for the Dumb"
are not only incredibly catchy and simple, but pack their maximum impact because of this simplicity. The terrifying screams of
"Cries of Help"
may be one of the most haunting moments on any
album, while
"The End"
is an excellent ending track that sums up the message of the album perfectly. The re-release from the mid-'90s appended several more excellent tracks, including the savage
"Two Monstrous Nuclear Stockpiles"
"The More I See,"
a song that possibly has the catchiest riff they have ever written. Their music before and after this point is quite unpredictable when it comes to quality, but this moment in their career was a very vital one that left an enormous imprint on music, even if most people do not realize it. [Released in 1982,
Hear Nothing
was reissued by
Castle
in 2003, and again in 2007 by
Captain Oi!
] ~ Bradley Torreano