The packaging
When I first saw this, I thought it was a bootleg repressing. The whole back cover looks dark and the barcode looks photocopied...it's not a bootleg, it's an official repress that I believe is Harley's doing. The booklet is just two band photos and a list of who played on what.
Sad...these are classic and highly influential hardcore albums. It's a shame these don't get some sort of deluxe treatment with full lyrics, essays from the band, and how about comments from every band influenced by them, about how much these records meant to them? These recordings deserve that.
The music
I am only "reviewing" this because it's a new pressing...basically my way of telling you that if you're planning on bidding $40 on eBay for this CD, don't. It's back in print and should be available at your favorite record store or mailorder distro.
Some albums don't have to be reviewed, and this is one of them. This disc has the two classic Cro-Mags hardcore albums...the band is basically "crossover" which means they have elements of punk and metal and they did it well before anyone else was doing it. It wasn't cool and eveyone else wasn't doing it, they were unique, and they pulled it off. Any metal band that uses punk elements and vice versa can thank the Cro-Mags.
So all I have to say is that any fan of loud music needs this. I can't compare it to older issues, but the sound is clean and clear, and supposedly remastered. I can't imagine there's a better sounding version out there.
However...
Call me anal, but when you have a rerelease of two classic albums, bonus tracks under no circumstances should have live songs that were written 15 years later. Keep it in the same era or the classic lineup only. That's just me. I like the song "Premeditated" which is from the "Revenge" album, but as a fan, I don't think it should be on here. The exception I'll give to this is if they put a full set of the reunion tour on here and on that tour they did newer stuff. This is just a few random songs though.
Second, come on...this is the Cro-Mags...a classic hardcore with thousands of fans...why the hell do some of the live songs sound like a guy taped them on a handheld tape recorder with only the built in mic? I guarantee there are better sounding live recordings out there.
