Iron Cross (American band)
Iron Cross was a punk rock band from Washington D.C. They played a rough form of street punk and the first band in the US to adopt the skinhead look and the Oi! musical style. Some of its members had close ties to the Washington hardcore punk subculture, due to its relationship with other hardcore bands, with Ian Mackaye, and with Dischord Records. Singer Sab Grey was one of the many roommates in the Dischord House in Arlington, Virginia. The band's name, and the fact that most of its members were skinheads, led to accusations  of fascism, which Grey and others in the band and the original D.C. skins, always denied, declaring that they "hate Nazis". Career. Iron Cross formed in 1980, when Dante Ferrando met Sab Grey. Ferrando was previously in the band Broken Cross with Mark Haggerty. When Grey and Ferrando decided to start a new band, Grey suggested the name Iron Cross. The first line-up consisted of Grey on lead vocals, Haggerty on guitar, Ferrando on drums and John Falls on bass guitar. This lineup lasted a very short time, with Falls leaving after Iron Cross's early show at American  University. After Falls' departure, the band went through two more bassists before settling on Wendel Blow, the former bassist for the D.C. hardcore punk band State of Alert. The only non-skinhead in the band was Ferrando, who maintained a spiky punk hairstyle. The band's fourth lineup lasted until just after the recording of their first EP, "Skinhead Glory". That EP features their signature song "Crucified", which was later covered by many Oi! and hardcore bands. After Blow left the band, he was replaced by John Dunn. Dunn had been an original member of the D.C. skins and was  close friends with the band's members. Dunn left the band just before the release of their second EP, "Hated and Proud". He was replaced by Paul Cleary, who was a founding member of the D.C. bands Trenchmouth and Black Market Baby. The 1982 Dischord Records compilation "Flex Your Head" introduced three Iron Cross songs to an audience beyond the eastern United States. In 1985, after further line-up changes that left Grey as the only original member of Iron Cross, the band broke up. Ferrando formed the band Gray Matter with Haggerty. Haggerty went on to play with the  bands 3 and Severin. Ferrando also played in the band Ignition and is now the owner of the D.C. club The Black Cat. Falls joined the band Egypt Central. New line-up. In 2001, Iron Cross re-released their EPs and previously-unreleased material in the form of the full-length CD "Live For Now". Grey played with The Royal Americans (a rockabilly-style band). A split release with British Oi! band Combat 84 was planned for release on GMM Records in 2002, although this recording never materialized. The mini-album "Two Piece and a Biscuit", featuring four songs from  Iron Cross and three from The Royal Americans, was released in 2007 on 13th State Records. By 2009, the line-up was: Sab Grey on vocals, Scotty Powers on drums, Dimitri Medevev (d. 2012) on bass, Mark Linskey on guitar and Shadwick Wilde on guitar. This group recorded two songs for a split EP with the band Keyside Strick, which Koi Records released as "Koi Records Split Vol. 5". In 2012, Skinflint Records released the Iron Cross EP "Est. 1980". Section::::"Crucified". In the mid 1980s, New York hardcore band Agnostic Front began covering "Crucified", a song from the Iron Cross  EP "Skinhead Glory". Agnostic Front included studio versions of the song on their "Liberty and Justice For..." and "Something's Gotta Give" albums. Grey's lyrics refer to being ridiculed for being different, being blamed for society's ills, being accused of violence, and to intolerance because of the actions of others. The metaphor of being crucified resonated with Communist, anarchist, and apolitical skinheads who were sick of being labelled as neo-Nazis. White Power sympathizers and fascists who called themselves skinheads also identified with the song due to backlash they received for their reactionary and racist ideology. "Crucified  has become an anthem for both factions of skinheads worldwide. Live audiences have taken to adding a chant of skinhead army!" to the chorus, a line not included in the band's original recording.