Why

It would be obvious and quite predictable to talk about how Discharge have influenced the music since the beginning of the 80's, the evolution that this band represented in terms of composition, lyrics, etc. There are not many things that has not been said already, so the only thing that deserves to be discussed is the main one: the music.

"Why" is a good example of the evolution of the punk scene into something more aggressive. Musically and lyrically, is the most extreme branch of the previously cited genre, and certainly is the less commercial one, but that does not mean anything at all, is well-known that everything has to evolve, otherwise it disappears. There are plenty of examples of how different this sounds are, in fact, I have to play the first song, "Visions of War", to know that this is something way ahead of its time, something quite compared to the sound of The Stooges, Black Sabbath or Iron Butterfly in the 60's, not in musical composition, but in historical significance. But enough musical comparisons, on to the music.

This has some elements that nowadays are quite common in some genres of metal, for example, the lyrics; things like "where trees and flowers once grew, a trail of destruction, death and destruction", were clearly an influence on later bands whose lyrical themes covered, among other things, social outcry and a crude point of view of the then actual happenings. Themes obviously inherited from punk evolved into a rawer and more obscure view of the world, making the lyrics a central part of the music, anyway, this was the reason of why punk emerged as a music genre in the first place, so making more arguments on this would be redundant.

One can have the vocals, the guitars and the bass, but the drums make the difference; that distinctive "d-beat", was a complete revolution, maybe Discharge were not the first ones, but they certainly made this kind of rhythm a very popular one back then. It is good for the actual musical content and I can't conceive this songs sounding in a different way. The only problem with this beat is the repetition of itself, again and again, there's almost no rest, a basic formulaic rhythm: beat-fill-beat. For some this may sound too repetitive, and certainly, you need to love the music as a whole in order to forget about the constant repetition. But again, this has to be appreciated as if you were in 1981, listening this for the very first time, with no musical precedents.

I can't talk too much about the guitar and bass independently, because in this record, these instruments follow each other without making anything different, and when I say follow, I refer specifically to the bass. I have to admit that this is fun to play in bass, because of the entertaining and catchy basslines. The guitar makes everything it has to make to add aggression to the music as a whole: distortion, speed and solos when necessary.

Vocals cannot be different from this, otherwise instead of hardcore punk we would have had some kind of extreme new wave/post-punk/alternative or something like that. I really think that the way Cal sings is the only way this music deserves to be accompanied, other things would have resulted in a failure. It is nothing from the other world, but I can assure you it was completely different in the 80's, plus it adds extra aggression and violence overall. Mix these vocals with the speed of the guitar, bass, and drums, and add the production and the results will be like the sound of this EP.

In brief, I enjoy this record as a whole, because that's the way it needs to be listened, and the purpose of the dissection of this is in order to analyze it; like an autopsy to find the cause of death, analysis of music is to find the pros and cons of the execution, composition and production of the material, and in this EP, I have to say that it is enjoyable, yes, but I also have to recognize that it sometimes falls in repetition. It is an enormous influence, and if I have lived in 1981, my opinion would still be the same.