Harley's War-Hardcore All-stars

MVD
2009



Former Cro-Mag bass player and some time vocalist Harley Flanagan's band includes members and former members of Agnostic Front, Suicidal Tendencies, Warzone and others on this set. The CD includes a whopping 32 tracks. It has a dozen studio tracks, four songs from a solo demo in 1982 and the rest are various live tracks. The dozen studio songs are straight forward metal tinged hardcore with a mid-late 80's flavor. The better songs reminded me of a cross between New York hardcore, crossover and Chicago's Zoetrope. Flanagan's vocals are good enough and not far off from when he sang on "Best Wishes" over twenty years ago. Certainly the material here is not as strong as the first two Cro-mags' albums, but the approach is simple and easy to get into. Having been done in 1982 means the four songs from that demo were done a yea after the Cro-mags formed and Harley was only 14 or 15 years old at the time. It's severely raw and brief bursts of hardcore. Nothing spectacular, but energetic for sure and you hear hints of the energy that would be harnessed in later projects. The live tracks include a number of Cro-mags classics. The sound quality varies and Flanagan's voice doesn't always hit like it should, but they move ahead at a steady pace and there is enough fire to keep it going. As if this wasn't enough their is also a 29 song DVD with plenty of live performances included as well. We get to see a number of the same songs that were on the live tracks on the CD. Overall more quantity than all quality I guess, but still far more than enough here to please Cro-mags and old style hardcore fans.