Cro-Mags have put out a new recording of “Everybody’s Gonna Die“, a song Harley Flanagan wrote in 1985 that never made the band’s debut album, timed to forty years since The Age Of Quarrel was released in September 1986.
It appears on The Age Of Quarrel: 40 Years Of Quarrel, a re-recording of the full album due on November 13 through BLKIIBLK. A lyric video accompanies the single.
The project began with a documentary and ended up as an attempt to settle a forty-year-old grievance.
“It all started with the making of the ‘Wired For Chaos‘ movie, but there were several reasons for revisiting The Age Of Quarrel. None of the people who played on the original record ever got paid, and none of us ever received an accounting of the album’s sales. For years, I tried to reunite the original lineup to re-record it and reclaim the rights to The Age Of Quarrel and Best Wishes through the Copyright Reversion Act. But I couldn’t get everyone together to take back ownership of the music, and that window has now closed,” Flanagan said.
He continued: “We had to re-record a few songs for the ‘Harley Flanagan: Wired For Chaos‘ documentary soundtrack because the original recordings couldn’t be licensed. That inspired me to finish the entire album. To honor The Age Of Quarrel, I brought together friends, current bandmates and musicians from other bands to celebrate these songs that have meant so much to so many people, myself included. Forty years later, everyone who wrote these songs will finally be paid through ASCAP and BMI, and the remaining proceeds will go to charity. I’m doing my best to make things right. These songs belong to the fans. I’m washing my hands of the past and trying to clear the bad karma from this record. Love wins. My quarrel is over.”
The claims about payment and accounting are Flanagan‘s own, and no response has been made publicly by anyone connected to the original release. The mechanism he refers to is the termination provision in US copyright law, which allows authors to reclaim rights they signed away decades earlier, but only by filing notice inside a fixed window.
Greyson Nekrutman of Sepultura drummed on every track. Arthur Rizk, whose credits include Power Trip and Blood Incantation, produced and mixed.
Two men from the band’s own history appear: Doug Holland, who played guitar on the original album, and Rocky George, formerly of both Cro-Mags and Suicidal Tendencies. Members of Turnstile and Rise Against also contribute, among them Zach Blair on “Don’t Tread On Me” and Meg Mills on “It’s The Limit”. Dave Sharpe joins Holland on “We Gotta Know”.
John Joseph, who sang on the 1986 album, is not involved. Flanagan took over vocals with 1989’s Best Wishes and has handled them since.
The Age Of Quarrel: 40 Years Of Quarrel Tracklist:
- “We Gotta Know” (featuring Dave Sharpe & Doug Holland)
- “World Peace”
- “Show You No Mercy”
- “Malfunction”
- “Street Justice”
- “Survival Of The Streets”
- “Seekers Of The Truth” (featuring Arthur Rizk and Rocky George)
- “It’s The Limit” (featuring Meg Mills)
- “Hard Times”
- “By Myself”
- “Don’t Tread On Me” (featuring Zach Blair)
- “Face The Facts”
- “Do Unto Others”
- “Life Of My Own”
- “Signs Of The Times”
“Everybody’s Gonna Die” is listed as a bonus track on the physical editions.
“World Peace” was released first, in August, with a video.
Cro-Mags started in New York in 1981, with Flanagan beginning the band at 14. The Age Of Quarrel came out on Profile Records in September 1986, recorded at Eastside Studios with producer Chris Williamson, and became one of the records that fused hardcore punk and thrash. Flanagan is the only musician from that lineup to have appeared on every Cro-Mags studio album since.
“Wired For Chaos“, released earlier this year, was the band’s first new song in six years and their first for BLKIIBLK. A seventh studio album is scheduled for 2027 through the same label, their first full-length since In The Beginning.
The band spent the summer on a European and UK run under the “40 Years Of Quarrel” banner, from Gdansk on July 20 to Barcelona on August 11, and are currently touring Europe again before US dates.
