Cro-Mags: The Age Of Quarrel [ASTOR PLACE]

Why you'll love it

This Astor Place reissue puts the 15-song original back on vinyl. AllMusic said it's practically impossible to understand New York hardcore without it, and Hit Parader named it the fourth greatest hardcore album of all time.

About the album

The cover is a photograph of the Castle Romeo H-bomb test, which tells you roughly how the band hoped the record would land. Harley Flanagan and Parris Mayhew wrote most of it on the Lower East Side, with John Joseph out front, and the title comes from the Sanskrit Kali Yuga, the age of quarrel and illusion.

"We Gotta Know" came together in about five minutes, Flanagan says, and its video was among the first on MTV to show slam dancing and crowd surfing. "World Peace" was the pair's take on a Motörhead song, and "Show You No Mercy" and "Street Justice" are straight from the streets they lived on. "Malfunction," "Seekers of the Truth" and "Life of My Own" slow the tempo and point toward the metal crossover to come. Mayhew credits Rush with inspiring several of the riffs.

The band went straight out as main support for Motörhead on the US leg of the Orgasmatron tour. NME said its impact rivalled the nuclear test on the cover, and as reference letters go, that's a rather strong one.

Also at Kops: more Cro-Mags on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On Astor Place (cat# BFD-288LP), a reissue of the 1986 album.