Discharge
Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing

THE REVIEW

What does it mean to do punk? Punk means destroying, breaking, and stepping out of the norms, completely overturning the social system, upsetting everyone and everything. In the early '80s, the first works by Crass, Dead Kennedys, and Discharge took the concept of punk to the extreme and gave birth to hardcore. But what is hardcore? Hardcore is like a punch in the gut, an iron club to the listener's face, a deadly tornado that destroys everything in its path. But where does this tornado come from? It arises from deep social discontent, a marginalization caused by poor governance. And it is from here that the cycle begins: discomfort leads to anger, anger leads to revolt, revolt leads to destruction, and destruction leads to chaos.

In 1982, Discharge released their first album "Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing" which quickly became a true milestone of the genre. 14 songs of hardcore (with heavy metal influences, especially in the solos) fast, sincere, uncompromising that can only overwhelm the unwary listener for just 27 minutes. How can we not mention tracks of the caliber of the opener and title-track, "Protest And Survive" and "A Hell On Earth"? The beautiful "Cries Of Help" ends with the cries of children and their mothers (I imagine they are families experiencing war) and "Free Speech For The Dumb" which repeats the same damned guitar riff for just over 2 minutes. Moreover, this song will be covered by Metallica on their album "Garage Inc." There's little else to add: "Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing" is a fundamental album of the '80s and I believe that no enthusiast of the genre can do without such a record.