Customer Reviews

The Age Of Quarrel [Japan Import]

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Age of Quarrel is an all-time classic hardcore recording from the middle 80s. Full of politics, ideology, and aggression, the album is a kick in the skull, but it leans not too far into the realm of metal, instead representing an era of New York hardcore that included such other greats as Ludichrist, Murphy's Law, and S.O.D. (Sergeant D is coming, and you're on his list!). Buy it and stick it in between G.B.H.'s City Babys Revenge, and Cryptic Slaughter in your collection.

With the Age of Quarrel, The Cro-Mags started a sound that changed an entire music scene forever. Replacing melodic and hardcore punk with a more agressive sound and total street vibe the Cro-Mags usered in a new wave of hardcore punk.

This album is a classic. It also includes their follow-up, Best Wishes, but it's best to stop it at Signs of the Times, as the band was at their peak with the classic line-up of John Joseph, Harley Flanagan, Parris Mayhew, Doug Holland, and Mackie Jason.

This is the best hardcore album ever realeased! This is to NYHC, New York Hardcore, what "Illmatic" is to hip hop or "Kind of Blue" is to jazz, at least when Miles Davis was still loved by the jazz purists. Released in 1986 this album set the starge of the "NYHC" explosion, which yes is extinct in 2005, today there is horribl emetal and indie bands ruling the NY clubs, including CBGB's where the Cro Mags did their thing! Of course...the Lower East Side was a warzone and not the gentrified, hipsterville we know of today. In fact, any of today's hipsters would've gotten pulverized by the skins and roving, lawless gangs of the 80's! And "Age of Quarrel" reflects that vey well, just the few opening chords of "Hard Times" lets you know they are here to put it down and put it down HARD! When the Cro Mags released this it was a great time for hardcore, they followed fellow NY hardcore Gods Agnostic Front's lead, as well as idolizing the Bad Brains( then living in Ny after moving from D.C. ) and put out quite possibly the hardest album ever. The lineup was the REAL Cro Mags, before they starting acting like rock stars and feuding with petty "now I'm the founder of the Cro Mags nyah nyah!" Harley Flanagan played a pummeling bass and John Joseph shreded the mic with his vocals, today they are at each others throats, but "Age of Quarrel" just makes you reminisce for the days of unity. Bad Brains, Cro Mags, Fishbone, Murphy's Law...everybody played together, this is when there were squats on every blocks and when this album could've ONLY been made. Every album after this has gotten worse and worse, 1989's "Best Wishes" is a great album but Harley then took over vocals and the music is closer to Metallica than anything. "the Age of Quarrel" is hardcore at it's essence, its purist, its REALEST! Soon after this album, all great hardcore bands fused metal into their sounds, cuz as times changed hardcore was going out and metal was coming in. The only other hardcore albums that you would want to even consider putting in this league are Agnostic Front's 1982 debut "Victom in Pain" and Bad Brains 1983 masterpiece " Rock of Light."

. I saw them live in Paris, France, after a day of skateboarding with a busted ankle, and seeing John Joseph stretch in preparation for the concert, man those were the good days, they were so good live.....I was very attracted to the lyrics, Indian mythology graphics and amazing krishna tattoos they had. Here I am 14 years later, I got krishna tattos, and I still make sure I rock hard, I'm glad the Cro Mags were a part of my life as they gave me mental strentgh and stamina.... "The Age of Quarrel" is the original lineup of the Cro-Mags (John "Bloodklut" Jospeh, Harley Flanagan and Paris Mayhew),John Joseph has great vocals and he bring all of his notorious attitude forth, smae can be said for their legendary Bass player Harley, the man with the devil holding planet earth - tatood on his chest. The album is so real, you can smell the concrete of New York City, not the lame town of today, but the unforgiving, exotic, dirty, real and energetic New York of the 80's....Before there were posers and whiny dirtballs, there were the cro-mags, the real bad-asses of New York.... Unfortuntaly, the band shatterd afterwards into lesser bands (mediocre to say the least, but still with a great presence), speeking of which: the only good album done after Alpha-Omega belong to Harley-Flanagan's "White Devil", it's a 5song EP, and it's amazingly good, but good luck finding it...

The Age of Quarrel is my absolute favorite album to get pissed off to. In their other albums they went to a more metal sound, but this album is brooding, building to explosive violence, hardcore. All the great skinhead vibe without the racism. I defy anyone to not start fighting the moment they hear it.