away from its pub rock origins and towards a "dangerous and provocative" territory. The band's sound is a "high-speed noise overload" characterized by "ferocious noise blasts". The band's 1982 debut album, Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing (HNSNSN), went to number two on the UK Indie Charts and number 40 in the UK Album Chart. In the early 1980s, numerous singles and EPs placed in the top 10 of the UK Indie Charts, including the 1981 EP Why (#1) and the 1982 single State Violence State Control. In 2016, End Of Days', Discharge's seventh studio album, entered the Official UK rock charts at #10 and #23 on the indie charts..

HNSNSN paved the way for various extreme metal styles such as thrash metal, black metal, crust punk, and grindcore. The band's "brutal, extremist approach" and "extreme thrash noise" style of playing eventually led to the thrash genre. "Discharge's influence on heavy metal is incalculable and metal superstars such as Metallica, Anthrax and Sepultura have covered Discharge's songs in tribute." Discharge was a major influence on at least two generations of metal. Discharge have also been credited for laying the groundwork for grindcore. The musical genre of D-beat is named after Discharge and the band's distinctive drumbeat.

The intense Motörhead- and Buzzcocks-influenced drum beat used by Discharge early in their career is referred to as D-beat (sometimes referred to as "discrust"). It became a subgenre of hardcore punk, especially in Japanese, Brazilian and Scandinavian hardcore punk scenes. D-beat music is known for its "grinding, distorted, [and] brutally political" style. Many bands that followed Discharge's stylistic approach, primarily in Sweden, began using the "Dis-" prefix and "-charge" suffix in their names, and even began using "Des-" words with "Dis-" in its place as a parody. Examples include Disaccord, Disfear, Disclose, Discard, Dischug, Recharge, Kegcharge, Disarm and Distraught.

The bands who followed this naming trend also imitated Discharge's logo. This resulted in UK anarchist punk band Active Minds issuing an EP in 1995 entitled Dis Is Getting Pathetic, which parodied the cover of Fight Back.

Influence on other genres
As well as bringing the D-beat subgenre into existence, Discharge influenced bands operating within other types of extreme music. Decibel magazine states that there are "...few bands who have had more influence over so many different scenes than Discharge", including the first generation of thrash bands, grind and hardcore groups.

"Discharge's influence on heavy metal is incalculable and metal superstars such as Metallica, Anthrax and Sepultura have covered Discharge's songs in tribute." Some photos of Metallica, Anthrax and Exodus band members from the early 1980s show them wearing Discharge T-shirts. Thrash metal groups like Metallica and Slayer were inspired by their speed and brutality. Anthrax was already playing Discharge cover songs by 1983.

Oakland metal band Neurosis named Discharge's "Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing" (the title track of the album of the same name) as one of the top five UK anarcho-punk tracks. 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."

Discharge have been credited for laying the groundwork for grindcore. Early grindcore acts such as Napalm Death and Repulsion were influenced by Discharge, as were early death metal acts such as Celtic Frost and Nihilist. Discharge were also crucial to the development of crust punk, influencing many of the first crust bands, such as Doom, Hellbastard, and Antisect.