  cro-mags are a hardcore punk turned crossover thrash band from new york city. the band, which had a strong cult following, has released five studio albums, their first two considered the most influential. with a hare krishna background, they were among the first bands to fuse hardcore punk with thrash metal and were associated with the birth of a tougher attitude within the hardcore scene in the late 1980s, related to the world of martial arts. john joseph mcgowan and harley flanagan are practitioners of boxing and brazilian jiu-jitsu respectively. according to allmusic, "before the cro-mags, the idea of combining heavy metal and hardcore together was unheard of. but with the release of their classic debut, the age of quarrel, hardcore-metal was born, and in its wake came a legion of similarly styled offspring (biohazard, vision of disorder, etc.)."http://www.allmusic.com/artist/cro-mags-mn0000781766 ==history== the band's early years were spent "living in burnt out buildings, squats and on the streets".http://www.cro-mags.com they first released a demo with songs that would eventually find themselves on their debut album the age of quarrel (1986). singer john joseph subsequently parted ways with the band, leaving bass player harley flanagan to sing on the following cro-mags release, best wishes (1989), which had a more heavy metal-influenced sound. the next record alpha omega
American_hardcore_punk_groups American_thrash_metal_musical_groups Crossover_thrash_groups Hardcore_punk_groups_from_New_York Musical_groups_established_in_1981