Before the Cro-Mags, the idea of combining heavy metal and hardcore punk was unheard of. But with the release of their classic debut, 1986's The Age of Quarrel, hardcore metal was born, and in its wake came a legion of similarly styled offspring. The Cro-Mags have endured an endless number of lineup shifts and skirmishes over the band's leadership and who owns the rights to their name, yet the group continued to record and tour, and their influence on hardcore (especially the New York scene) is massive. The Age of Quarrel's blend of hardcore velocity and metal guitar figures makes it their definitive release, and 1989's Best Wishes pushed their sound into thrash metal territory. 2020's In the Beginning, recorded after many years of uncertainty about the group's future, found them back in angry and aggressive form, with a more muscular version of their '80s classics.