Cro-Mags - "In the Beginning"

John Bloodclot and Harley need to have cage match to the death under the subways of New York and the winner gets the  Cro-mags. It looks like Harley has one the legel name game. His wife beinga lawyer certainly helped here. It is his incarnation on this album. I loved "Best Wishes". I saw them on "the Best Wishes" tour rocking the fuck out of a small all-ages club and it was awesome. I was also 12 so what did I know , it was my first hard core show. Keep that in mind next time you feel like questioning my hard core cred. Cus you can only say shit if you saw them on the "Age of Quarell " tour. If not you are not shit , unless you are like a member of Agnostic Front or Minor Threat , then you have more hardcore cred than me for sure. In some ways this album picks up where "Best Wishes". left off. It is not as good as "Best Wishes' and here are the reasons why.

There are two major reasons, it is all Harley's show. Writing in a vacuum when every one else is showing up for a paycheck is problematic. This leads to all the songs to sound the same.The first two songs come out swinging so this is not noticeable until 3 songs in.By "From the Grave" it has become almost silly.   If there ws another equal member in the band from say the original line up, then perhaps they would call him out on this. The other element is also a matter of the line up. Rocky George is  playing guitar on this. Along side the Cro-mags , Suicidal Tendencies was a band I grew up with. However this is New York hard core and Rocky is a west coast guy. I do not feel his vibe being the same.  The bass tone sounds like shit compared to "Best Wishes" , sounds like farting leading into "No One's Coming" . The song it self is saw by the lyrics which are the most real thing on the album.

Though it's hinted at in vocals mixed as background tracks , Harley's actual crooning singing voice does not come into play until 7 songs in on "the Final Test" . This was more of a thing on "Best Wishes". I loved that about wishes and at the time liked him as a singer better than John. He offers a more forceful yet melodic performance on "One Bad Descision" . His voice has aged well and 53 has retained it's youth . In fact age has given it more beef. "Don't Talk About It " find them chugging on the same path the bulk of the songs have. "Between Wars" is an instrumnetal which seems like an odd choice for a hard core band. It is more atmospheric than you might expect. I am for even the tough guy Biohazard hints on "No Turning Back" as it doesn't sound like the chug of the other songs. It closes with a more atypical hard core song, which from these guys is fine. I will give this album a 9.

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