CRO-MAGS

There was a time when the Cro-Mags were the greatest band on earth. High-octane punk bombast wrapped in a vicious metallic riffage, the Cro-Mags weren't only New York's most important hardcore band, they were a way of life. Frighteningly fearless and fatally frenetic, tattooed and down for life, they broke the sonic and cultural barriers in the highly stratified music world. For those of you unfamiliar with underground rock history suffice it to say that every New-Jack corporate punk-metal crossover band owes its musical livelihood to the path blazed by these musical marauders. Most "upstart" rock acts talk tough; these motherf*ckers would rip out your spleens if you started up with 'em. The Cro-Mags' story starts with founding member and legendary New York skin Harley Frances Flanagan who earned his stripes as the ten-year-old Keith Moon-like whiz kid drummer behind The Stimulators-seminal heroes of the burgeoning Big Apple punk scene. Stifled by his dire power-pop musical situation, Harley felt the urge to step out on his own. Influenced by the passion and power of The Bad Brains' Darryl Jennifer and amped on the speed-freak metal fury of Motorhead's immortal Lemmy Kilmister, Harley teamed up with uptown Axe Assassin Parris Mitchell Mayhew to create the heaviest f*cking band ever-The Cro-Mags. Unleashing neanderthal primal urge and strongly enhanced by state-of-the-art thunderous musical synchronization, the band's first practices in January '82 featured then Bad Brains manager Dave Hahn on drums and vocalist Eric Casanova.