Career Killing Albums

You don't seem to see it so much these days but I remember a time when bands would inexplicably release albums so far away from their original formulas and out of left field that it would alienate most of their fan base and sometimes even kill their whole careers. Bad Religion had "Into the Uknown", SSD had "How We rock", Black Flag slowed everything down, cleaned up, then slowed down even more on sides one and two of "My War". The career killingest album of all time? Has to be "Grave New World" by Discharge.

Just in case you don't know, Discharge made their name with short, straight to the point, political blasts of punk/metal fury. Simply by reading the titles of their tunes you already knew how the songs were going to go. Here are some examples: "Protest and Survive", "Free Speech for the Dumb", "State Violence/State Control" and "Drunk with Power". Now grunt or yell them at the top of your lungs like your angry neighbor screaming at his wife and that's pretty much how the song goes. So I have to wonder, was it boredom or insanity that made them come out with 1986's "Grave New World"? We don't know.

Featuring guitar riffs lifted directly from Dio era Black Sabbath and/or Led Zeppelin and screeching vocals so high even King Diamond was envious, this album had people showing up to gigs just so they could toss bags of rotten garbage at the band. Seriously, people were that pissed. Discharge's new look didn't help matters either. Singer Cal was now "Kelvin" and instead of the usual two foot high liberty spikes he now sported a long straight "That Girl" flip along with a stylish brown leather jacket (everyone knows punks ONLY wear black leather!).

To me that album is a work of pure genius. First of all I genuinely love the songs. I mean, like I said they were all stolen from other bands but man did they rock! And second, you really can't get much more punk than to completely piss off and outrage almost the entire punk rock community now can you? In my whole life I've known exactly three people that liked this record.

One time when I was a teenager a metalhead friend of mine asked me to play him some Discharge because he'd seen pictures of Metallica wearing their T-shirts. I could've done the right thing and played him "The Nightmare Continues" (insert grunts here) or something along those obvious lines but instead I deviously put on "GNW". You should've seen the look on his face as he asked me if I was sure this was the same Discharge and if so why did Metallica like them so much. HAHAHAHAHA

In retrospect SSD's "How We Rock" was really not that different from their previous record "Get It Away" which was loved by most of hardcore/punk rock society. Sure they added guitar solos (which are mostly out of key by the way) and they changed their lyrical content (gone were anti smoking and drinking diatribes, in were odes to rocking and road trips) but the essential heaviness and even the trademark polka on methamphetamines hardcore drumbeat are prominently featured throughout. I mean slap some Pushead artwork on the cover instead of the bad airbrush carnival style crap they went with and most people probably wouldn't have noticed the difference. Black Flag were still loud and fucked up sounding, the tempo just wasn't as high and the production got slicker. Even Bad Religion's foray into '70's style folk prog rock still had their familiar melodies and harmonies that everyone seems to love. But with "Grave New World" the whole thing was like a giant middle finger pointed straight at you and everything you thought you believed in. That's punk rock to the hilt.