Why?

Day Sixteen. The "Why?" EP from Discharge is one of the best batch of songs ever. A question some folks might as is "what was the first extreme music band?" You might respond with "well death and black metal" was started by bands like Death and Mayhem. But, really, they where just an extension of what bands like Slayer and Hellhammer where doing before that. So maybe they where the first? Well, Slayer and Hellhammer are really just extensions of Venom and Discharge. So maybe they where the first. What came before them was Motorhead and Judas Priest. I don't think anybody would consider those guys extreme music. It all depends on what you define extreme music to be and where you draw the line. I personally believe it starts here with Discharge's "Why?" EP.

Both Venom and Discharge are probably the bands that influenced extreme music the most. Both had ultra lo-fi raw production. Both where louder and faster than anything that came before. Both jacked up the intensity as far as what type of textures you can create with distorted guitars.

I love Venom and all the influence they had wrought. They named a fucking genre for crying out loud. But I still think Discharge is the superior band. Venom was great, but once you get past the speed and the wall of sound, it was very much rock n roll. There was still pentatonic scales and bluesy guitar solos and such.

The solos on "Why?" are quite literally nonsensical scratching noises. You get the impression that they are actually trying to play their instruments, but it only lasts for three seconds so it's hard to be sure.

And those riffs. Where do I even begin? There are no traces of pentatonic scales that characterized everything from Chuck Berry to Motorhead. They don't even use scales. Musical scales are for chumps. For the first time ever, a band makes use of atonal riffing almost exclusively. They just mash together a sequence of powerchords that shouldn't be paired amongst each other. All of this was to the back drop of the famous D-beat. The atonal riffing and D-beats generate a constant feeling of unease as it undulates forward until the song ends abruptly. The eternal threat of chaos looms over the skies until our existence abruptly ends in atomic hellfire.

It's the atonal riffing that convinces me that this is truly the first extreme music album. Venom kind of loses its intensity once you get past the speed, volume, and rugged production because it's still very much rock n roll. Discharge gets more intense each time I listen to it. The grating riffing is what gives it a timeless edge that never seems to wear off.

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