Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing (1982) {1987, Japan 1st Press}

Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing is the debut studio album by English hardcore punk band Discharge, released on May 21, 1982 by Clay Records. While some critics at the time dismissed this album as "unmusical", in retrospect, it is viewed both a classic of the era and the peak of Discharge's career. The album is characterized by a minimalistic approach of music and lyrics, a heavy, distorted, and grinding guitar-driven sound and raw, shouted vocals similar to a political speech, with lyrics on anarchist and pacifist themes. The album is considered highly important in the evolution of extreme forms of metal and punk music, paving the way for genres such as thrash metal, black metal, crust punk and grindcore.

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 heavy metal 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 hardcore 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 metal-flavored punk 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 metal scene. Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth, and 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," and "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 hardcore 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" and "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.