Harley Flanagan – “Cro-Mags” [Album Review]

If you know your hardcore onions then the name Harley Flanagan will be one you should be fairly familiar with, having spent his career as frontman to hardcore brawlers Cro-Mags. Sadly his ugly split from the band was well-documented on the interweb, so some could see the title of this album and some of the tracks, “Guilty Until Proven Innocent” for example, as something of a dig at his former bandmates.

Clocking in at twenty-four minutes, Cro-Mags is somewhat of a brief affair. It smashes into life with the furious “I Come In Peace” and doesn’t let up from there. A furious onslaught of punk and hardcore, Flanagan delivers each track with his trademark vocal snarl with the likes of “Mess With The Bull” and “I’ll Fuck You Up” setting an aggressive tone that runs throughout the course of this short album. Raging from start to finish, Cro-Mags doesn’t pull any punches as Flanagan and his bandmates unleash all sorts of merry hell on each of the twelve tracks that comprise this bruising album.

The past few years have been fairly tempestuous for the former Cro-Mags frontman but, listening to the album closer “Trust No-One,” Flanagan hasn’t lost any of the bite and venomous rage that turned him into one of the innovators of the New York hardcore scene. Add into this mix his past troubles and you have a recipe for an explosive twenty-five minutes of fury.

Track Listing:

01. I Come In Peace
02. Can’t Give It
03. Betrayal
04. Webster Hall
05. Guilty Until Proven Innocent
06. To All My Friends
07. Mess With The Bull
08. Don’t Tell Me
09. I’ll Fuck You Up
10. Fighting The Urge To Kill
11. Ascending
12. Trust No One

Run Time: 24:12
Release Date: January 15, 2016

Check out the song “Guilty Until Proven Innocent” here.