DISCHARGE BY DEATH
“Discharge By Death” is the name of a band, and their only album, which was released on December 13th, 2010. I originally came across this album after being recommended the song “Necrosis” on youtube, and then decided to listen to the entire thing on Spotify.
Normally, it wouldn’t be considered odd for a band to have their album on Spotify, but in this case, it is perplexing.
Discharge By Death was a band formed entirely by prison inmates in the New Mexico Corrections system.
I will be honest, even though the album is musically good, I could not listen to it more than once. The crime committed by Jason Desnoyers, is the main reason for this.
In 1998, 18 year old college student Carly Martinez went missing after going out for the night. She was taken by Jason Desnoyers and Jesse Avalos, who took her to a remote part of the desert in New Mexico, where the two brutally raped and beat her. Various news articles couldn’t seem to figure out what tools were used exactly, but it was generally agreed that she was stabbed in the head, and suffered some sort of blunt force trauma. An article from the Alamogordo Daily News, dated July 14th, 1999, stated that Carly was stabbed more than a dozen times in the head, chest, abdomen, back, thighs, and buttocks. A single edged knife was identified as one of the weapons, while the second weapon could have been anywhere from a screwdriver, to potentially no other weapon at all, according to one of the Defense Attorneys. Carly stood no chance against her murderers, as she was a small woman, only about 5 feet tall, or 5’1, and barely over 100 pounds. In comparison, Desnoyers and Avalos are 5’10” and 5’8”, and according to current prison info, weight around 200 pounds each. Just from height alone, the two had a large advantage over her.
When Carly went missing, her family placed numerous ads in the papers asking for help in trying to find her. It wasn’t until the end of March, 1998, two months after her disappearance, that her body was identified. It turned out that her remains were burned, as her murderers had tried to destroy evidence. Around this point, Desnoyers left the state of New Mexico and fled to San Diego, California, though he was eventually caught and extradited back to New Mexico.
Both Avalos and Desnoyers tried to deny responsibility, and blame the other for killing Carly. From the way it read in news articles though, it appeared that Desnoyers was more the mastermind behind the murder, though Avalos still participated and helped. Both families for the defendants tried to claim that their children were innocent.
Thankfully, both were found guilty and sent to prison for life. It seems that not long after being sent to prison, is when Desnoyers started the process in creating this band, with other inmates, of which one of the other members was also a convicted murderer, in for life. I just want to point out, that Avalos is not in this band.
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I found that the talent used on this album, was such a waste. The guitars, the drums, the bass, were all good. If things were different, and these people came together on the outside, they could have been a pretty good band. But the darkness on this album permeates through each song. It’s hard not to feel the true Evil, and dark energy which created this.
I am unsure of what the musical influences were for Desnoyers and the people involved, though I felt like early Cannibal Corpse (Barnes era), may have been a major influence. I could also hear, instrumentally, similarities between other bands like Ripping Corpse.
Any enjoyment that I could have had with this album, was squashed, mostly due to the lyrics.
For the first time in my life, I was disgusted by the lyrics to any band. Never before, have I ever been genuinely shocked by what someone has written for their music. Typically, Metal lyrics are dark, edgy, and shocking to those that don’t understand the genre. But even the more risque, gorey, or sinister lyrics, do not compare to what is on this album.
I know that this might only promote the band even further, but I feel like it has to be said. At the end of the day, I know that people are going to do what they want to, no matter what. But it’s very clear to me, that the lyrics on this album are serious. Especially, when you consider that every person involved here, is a convicted felon, two of which, are murderers.
If this was any other band, certain songs could have been taken as simply Anti-Christian, anti-religious, and a general disdain for society. This isn’t out of the ordinary for Metal bands. Many bands write about their dislike for societal norms, their dislike of religion, and rebelling in general. Deicide is a great example of Anti-Religious lyrics. Cannibal Corpse is another example of shocking, horror movie type lyrics. Burn The Priest, early Lamb of God, is another example of Anti-Christian music.
Even if we were to look at bands that were commonly talked about during the Satanic Panic, Slayer, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, these bands had lyrics that were commonly considered “bad” by people who knew next to nothing about Metal. Yet, there’s a difference here, between all of the bands mentioned, and Discharge by Death.
The obvious being, that DBD consists of convicted murderers; and the person who wrote the lyrics, actually did some of the things he wrote about in his lyrics. That is so disgusting to me. To me, this is like Desnoyers’ way of gloating about his crime, and passing it off as a way to “release creative tension”.
Before the song “Butcher Jesus”, there is a recorded quote from someone, I assume Tex Watson, saying, “I am the Devil and I am here to do the Devil's work”. I don’t know where the recording comes from exactly, it didn’t appear in the 1976 movie “Helter Skelter”, or in any of the other Manson movies I’ve seen so far. I do find it strange how they used a quote from another murderer in their own music.
I cannot repeat the lyrics to the song “Fetal Snatch Thief”. It’s absolutely horrible. This is clearly not “theater”. It’s a disgusting fantasy fetish by a disgusting being. The song starts off with a recording, whose origin I don’t know. But someone is asked, “What would be your intention if you were forced to live in prison?” They reply, “Do everything I can to escape, and if necessary kill prison guards on the way out, and I'll go right back to doing what I did before as soon as I hit the streets.” The first person asks, “Which is what?”. And the second person says, “Kill”. To which “Kill” is then repeated, and the song starts.
It’s strange to me that the album was allowed to be created at all, and I wonder if it was under the guise that it would help release tension and anger for the inmates. The are prisons that allow their inmates to create music, use instruments, paint, and more, though you don’t typically see stuff in the realm of this. Typically, inmates are not allowed to make money off of their creative endeavors. That’s one of the reasons why Charles Manson’s album “Lie” had all profits go towards Voytek Frykowski’s son, for example. My question with this album is, “Where is the money going?”. Who receives the money that is made from this album? Yes, you can buy it digitally online. You can listen to it on youtube and spotify. But the person who benefits from this is not clear. Do the families of any of the victims even know that this album exists?
I know that there are people who will likely enjoy this album no matter what. There are some people who are just like that. Just like how there are people who collect John Wayne Gacy’s art, people that marry serial killers, and people that will forgive and even try to have friendships with the murderer that killed their family members, there will always be a group of people that seem to support what feels unforgivable.
Personally, this album is not for me.
[Sources]
https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Discharge_by_Death/Discharge_by_Death/292398
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Jason_Desnoyers/212099
https://open.spotify.com/album/1lKraPlzhxgQXojKT5R0TK
https://bruteprods.bandcamp.com/album/d-b-d
https://youtu.be/P5TpwNqY9UM?si=LUppY80AgT0iDz0J
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/214721424/carly-raquel-martinez
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