Discharge was "explicitly political" and displayed a "revolutionary/activist" attitude that moved British hardcore punk away from its pub rock origins and towards a "dangerous and provocative" or anti-establishment leftist territory.

Axon left later that year, followed by Bamford, and the band recruited their roadie Kelvin "Cal" Morris as vocalist, moving Tezz Roberts to drums and Wainwright to bass.

[7] With Morris's addition, the group abandoned their previous Sex Pistols-influenced material and developed a new set of songs with a retooled sound.

[7] The new, harder-edged style also tended to use much darker, more nihilistic and violent lyrics, focusing on anarchist and pacifist themes while emphasizing the grisly effects of nuclear warfare and the social ills caused by capitalism.

[10] The band also expressed its political and social themes in its albums' artwork, which depicted the horrors of war using an iconic black-and-white photography style.

At the same time, the record showed that it was possible for a hardcore band to incorporate the sonic power of "heavy metal without sacrificing ideology or anger".

[7] In David Konow's history of heavy metal, he calls the album the band's "...crowning achievement, a mercilessly brutal masterpiece.

"[17] The group played regularly throughout the UK, often appearing with bands such as GBH and The Exploited, and the success of the debut album also saw them touring Canada, the United States, Italy, Yugoslavia, Holland, Finland and Sweden.

[18] The Warning... EP shows drastic stylistic differences, with Morris changing his angry shouts to a mix of regular singing and football chants.

Following the later addition of second guitarist Stephen "Fish" Brooks, they released 1986's Grave New World, a mainstream metal album with a glam sound from Morris's high-pitched singing style.

The album reached the indie top 10, but the band struggled with personnel problems as Morris departed and was briefly replaced by ex-Wrathchild frontman Rob "Rocky Shades" Berkeley the following year.

Morris formed a new version of the band in 1990 with Andrew "Andy" Green on guitar, Anthony Morgan on bass and Mika Karppinen initially playing drums, only to be replaced by the returning Maloney.

[citation needed] In 1993 they released Shootin' Up the World, which continued Cal's new vocal style, but the songs were significantly heavier than on Massacre Divine.

In 2001, the classic line-up of Morris, Roberts and Wainright reunited after meeting at a party held by original bassist Bamford, and in 2002 they released their self-titled album Discharge, a return to their early 1980s style featuring political commentary and aggressive playing.

An EP containing the song and a live recording of "Ain't No Feeble Bastard" was released on 16 January 2016, entitled New World Order.

End of Days, Discharge's seventh studio album, was released on 29 April through Nuclear Blast Records and entered the Official UK rock charts at No.

The guitar work is fast and brutal, that famous D-beat drumming pattern is in full effect, and the vocals are a gruff, angry bark."

The review states that the "songs are short, violent bursts of punk rock fury, brimming with an energy" with "a real sense of menace and sincerity in the tone" and it is "[r]elentless from start to finish".

[23] On 30 December 2017, the group played a support slot for the original Misfits reunion at the LA Forum in Los Angeles, California.

The band's singer/guitarist Steve Von Till stated that Discharge "...bridged the gap between Motörhead, Venom and punk rock" with their "huge fucking wall-of-sound guitar that was just ridiculously punishing, taking on heavy metal's gain and volume but creating something totally unique and new.

Other bands to have cited Discharge as an influence include Hellhammer, Celtic Frost,[30] Sodom,[31] Holocausto,[32] Sepultura,[33] Sarcófago,[34] Attila Csihar of Mayhem, Tormentor and Sunn O))),[35] Blasphemy,[36] Queens Of The Stone Age, Machine Head, Prong, Dogstar and Slipknot.

New York City anarchist crust band Nausea, recorded "Ain't No Feeble Bastard" along with "Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing", on The Punk Terrorist Anthology, Vol.

Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy covered the song "Warning" on the 2011 CD Khaos Legions.

As well, Swedish melodic death metal pioneers At the Gates covered "The Nightmare Continues" as a hidden track on their With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness album.

British black metal band The Meads of Asphodel adopted a medley style cover of "Hell on Earth" and "Blood Runs Red" on their 2006 EP In the Name of God, Welcome to Planet Genocide.