i was never a big cro-mags fan, or let me put it this way, i was never a big fan of harley flanagan's singing style. i can hang with a few songs here and there but it never moved me enough to actually track down a physical copy of their albums. that's the story so far. yesterday my wife and me were in elmshorn, a town in the metro area of hamburg, to do some shopping. elmshorn has a small second hand record shop called "von gestern" (from yesterday) and i have been there a few times in the past.
they have a small assorted section of metal and punk records but i never found anything worthwhile in the past. so i didn't really expect to buy anything. the more i was surprised to come across the cro-mags' second full length "best wishes". i took a closer look and found the profile records logo on the back. i knew that leeway's "born to expire" was also released on profile and that first press copies were quite sought after. so the hope for a possible first press and the low price tag of ten bucks made me go for it.
back home i checked discogs and found out that it truly happens to be a u.s. first press copy. the cover sleeve looks quite good considering its age, the printed dust sleeve is in good condition as well and the vinyl is in perfect shape. no noise, no surface scratches just perfect sound. and the important thing, the music? well, i have really come to enjoy "best wishes". the instrumental part is raging crossover and even though i have only listened to it two times in whole, i adjust to flanagan's vocal style. it works well with the hardcore-metal mix. nice! got to look out for more cro-mags stuff. profile records. 1989.
