Dischord – ‘War Or Peace’ – Discordance III.

Dischord – Blackpool, England, United Kingdom.

Photography credit – Angelina Johnson.
For our previous work on the band – Click Here.

Dischord have never been for the fainthearted. In person and they are approachable, chilled, pleasant and all manner of positive words used to describe social manner. However, once all is set up and plugged in, either in a studio or on a stage the band take on a whole new form entirely.

Lyrically unrestrained with strong Leftfist politics and a strong criticism of contemporary and past events alike, Dischord are controversial, blunt and strong in their passion for Punk-Rock. The first two albums, which you can find linked above, were full throttle, visceral and abrasive statements stylistically chronicling some of the best Punk-Rock variants since the genres inception.

Misfits? Black Flag? Dead Kennedys? Fugazi? Minor Threat? and the Ramones are all heard in the bands music with their collected expertise sitting crucially, but somewhat secondary to the Dischord themselves who’s sound is unambiguously their own.

\\War Or Peace//

Despite the fury that acts as the life-blood of the band, any instrumentals or calmer tracks they attempt contrast beautifully and stand well on their own individually. ‘War’ is such a track and already shows how the lyrics of this album are paramount.

The strong and hard hitting description of war from the previous track is driven forward in ‘Red Poppies’, a dark old-school Punk-Rock song that attacks the casualties of the First World War, with a strong focus on the bands anti-Imperialist stance.

‘You can’t save the soldiers who died in 1917, but with a canteen full of hate you can desecrate their legacy, shedding blood for oil you guaranteed your place in hell
pulling the triggers for the rich in the wars the rich won’t fight for themselves‘

Musically the previous two releases often leaned far closer Hardcore Punk than the more melodic and “classic” Punk showcased with this release. The bands lyrics have always been an integral part of their repertoire but in the case of War Or Peace, are held in a much more obvious and important position, contrasting with the differing musical direction. ‘Vinegar Tom’ is an example of such and along with the former, boasts as one of the best on the release.

‘Another New Messiah’ is as deadly serious as it is darkly humorous in another new element to the bands sound, with its semi-acoustic Folk-Punk and some of the best lyrics on the album.

‘Summer Fate’ and ‘Red Is The Colour’ make more use of the dark atmosphere created by the by now very serious and very entrenched attack on the bleak nature of the climate of War – past present and future, from the perspective of those safely behind the line and from War itself.

‘I conjure a cause, just a few short lines,
And they suffer death, a thousand times.’

Purposely it seems, ‘Peace’ returns us to the heaviness of the band with a thick chord progression  lumbering towards part two of the album, with vocalist Chris’ maniacal yelp of defiance and hope. All before ‘White Feathers’ destroys your quietly focussed attention with another Dischord trademark.

While you are listening to this album, I thoroughly recommend having a copy of the lyrics in-front of you. Tracks such as ‘Shellshocked’ rumble along in their mid-tempo progression with odes to the bands Hardcore roots with again with the insanity of Chris Dischord’s vocal chords over the jaggedly penned lyrics

‘Battlefield’ is again lyrically untouchable in its Anarchism and one I’m going to leave you discover for yourself, but for one blunt statement ‘[…] there is only one war, the war against all humanity‘. Musically speaking, the track is more of what this album needs, disjointed yet ironically coherent Hardcore Punk with all the Blackpool quirks.

‘Victory Gin’ and ‘Love’ close, with the formers beautifully crafted ode to Orwell’s 1984 in it’s blast of Post-Hardcore and harsh reality.

Despite the new formula indeed working very well, on a negative note I find myself momentarily pining for the heavier, harder and faster tracks from the previous releases. The recording is better, the song writing is at its best and all other matters are on point but you still feel something is missing.

That is until you hear ‘Love’. Not only one of the most aggressive tracks on the release but nigh-on the best track on it. Yes, the album could use more of this, it would work well, but once you’ve listened to ‘Love’ everything makes sense and the album boasts the best of the band yet.

Find all things Dischord below:

• For updates on the Blackpool Punks, head to their Facebook profile.
• The bands music can be found across bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon and Spotify, with this album exclusively on bandcamp along with merch.

‘I am The silence, when the guns have ceased.’

#StayFresh