Album Review: Discharge – Protest And Survive: The Anthology

Longstanding British hardcore punk band Discharge are legendary, not a word I use lightly, they are the constantly evolving pioneers of the D-beat sub-genre, one that it must be recognised they created, with a soundtrack that has had a worldwide influence on the extreme ends of the metal and punk scenes with their uncompromising visceral sound, in addition to this Discharge‘s political message remains increasingly relevant. My last experience of seeing Discharge live resulted in mild concussion at a Rebellion Festival a few years ago due to a hail of stage divers and a stray Dr. Marten boot, somehow this is fitting as 53 tracks in a shade under two hours is the aural equivalent of a concussion, don’t take that as a negative, it’s just a perfect analogy for the pummelling and unrelenting assault that is Discharge‘s back catalogue.

Discharge are one of those rare bands whose influence has spread far beyond their roots, the likes of Anthrax, Metallica and Sepultura owe as much to Discharge as Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror, as well as the more expected names from the punk and hardcore scenes that you can mentally insert at your leisure, the upshot is that without Discharge we could have been looking at very different musical landscape than the one that now exists. “Protest And Survive: The Anthology” does tend to shift it’s focus towards their earlier material, but their later years are not just shoved under the carpet. The first disc is an overview of their forty plus years, however when you venture beyond this you find something very different to the usual compilations and ‘Greatest Hits’ offerings.

Alongside the expected prime cuts from their back catalogue you get a second disc that contains a plethora of alternate versions, demo recordings, remixes, remasters, extended versions, live recordings and the obligatory previously unreleased tracks, something that should be included on any self respecting anthology. This means that this collection has equal appeal for the established die hard fan and the fresh faced newcomer, something of a rarity amongst the collections I’ve encountered in recent years where a band’s established fanbase are ignored and collections of well known and familiar tracks are increasingly the norm. Discharge are quite rightly regarded as the godfathers of the hardcore and anarcho punk scenes, this 53 track collection only confirms that the title has been earned and is well deserved.

“Protest And Survive: The Anthology” is an essential retrospective of one of the punk scene’s true originals, it is now available on double CD digipack, gatefold double splatter vinyl and digitally here. Discharge can be found on Facebook here