Cro-Mags - Age of Quarrel Ten Inch

Label: Fan Club; Year: 199?; Format: Vinyl 10"

I never thought I’d be living in New York City one day, and here I am living in the Big Apple grinding away, and trying to pay all those bills while still having some fun. Before this city turned into the gentrified amusement park it often represents today, it was a city where survival of the fittest was on the daily picking order. The Lower East Side wasn’t a hip place to go to but instead offered space for artists and musicians to pursue what they enjoyed the most. I have to further admit that I was also never a huge fan of New York Hardcore with a few exceptions, and Cro Mags would never make it onto any of my lists of Top Bands. Still, if there was one 10” I would be allowed to take with me to a lonely island, it might as well be this one here. Before “Age of Quarrel” was recorded and released as an LP in 1986 a demo tape of all those songs was recorded between late ’84 and early ’85, and subsequently must have made the rounds in tape trader circles. Back in the tape trading days demos often ended up in various countries, and so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that in the early ‘90s someone came up with the idea to press the “Age of Quarrel” demo onto a 10”. While I have heard the more metallic sounding LP version in the past it just never grabbed me the same way as this much more raw and more brutal demo version. Everything, and I really mean everything is perfect about these recordings, as these songs just can’t be beaten when it comes to NYHC straight out of the gutters of the Lower East Side. The loud bass guitar, the screaming vocals, the speed, and above all the sheer brutality of these songs cannot be put into words, you just have to hear them! Essential listening for your bleeding ears!