Cro-Mags are an American 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.)."

Cro-Mags are an American 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.)."