As hardcore impresarios Cro-Mags slash and burn their way to the release of their impending new album In The Beginning, out Friday, 19th July, the band has rattled off yet another warning shot. Today, new single ‘From The Graves’ hits our eyes and ears for the first time with such ferocity we’ll be seeing double for a week.
The new single sees Cro-Mags combine powers with heavy metal fire brand and Motörhead guitarist, Phil Campbell. Like a mata leão , ‘From The Grave’ both efficiently and gloriously manhandles the listener into a state of submission, leaving you gasping for air once it decides to loosen its grip.
For the official ‘From The Grave’ clip, Cro-Mags opted for a no-bullshit treatment, allowing the sheer rough and tumble energy of the track to shine through unimpeded, all the while paying homage to the outfit’s native New York City.
“I think anybody who knows the history of this band and of my life will get it,” Flanagan says of the clip to Revolver. “It starts off at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, where I will be buried with my family and in-laws. In the opening shot, the grave I’m in front of is actually my mother’s.”
‘From The Grave’ (feat. Phil Campbell) is the latest in a series of brand new tracks from the act, leading up to what will be their first album of new material in 20 years.
Throughout their tenure, Cro-Mags have earned a reputation as one of the most important acts to have added to the annuls of hardcore. With a then-teenaged Harley Flanagan at the helm, Cro-Mags brought intertextuality into hardcore music that was never there before by incorporating elements of metal, thrash, funk, hip hop, jazz, classical and whatever other unique elements they could get their hands on.
Ever the thinker, Flanagan, also a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, used Cro-Mags as a vehicle to explore, and shout about, philosophy, spirituality and existential curiosities.
Following numerous line up changes, legal battles and general shit storms that would crush their contemporaries, Cro-Mags have emerged as a testament to the early days of New York hardcore, and the hard-working, straight-shooting, not-here-to-fuck-spiders ethos it promoted.
As we learn more and more about the insurmountable odds the iconic band overcame to bring us In The Beginning, it’s clear those traits have only become truer with time.
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