In an Instagram post, Harley Flanagan revealed that he’s working on a new Cro-Mags album with producer Arthur Rizk, and compared the new music to “Metallica meets Minor Threat.”
Flanagan recently won sole ownership of the name “Cro-Mags” in a legal settlement which resulted in two versions of the legendary hardcore punk band, the other now going by “Cro-Mags JM” and featuring John Joseph, Mackie Jayson, A.J. Novello and Craig Setari.
Flanagan sued Joseph and Jayson over rights to the name, eventually gaining the original name for himself. The Cro-Mags JM camp referred to the settlement as a “win-win situation” in a statement.
Flanagan wrote in the caption to a picture of a Bad Brains mug and visible multi-tracks on a laptop screen: “Had great day of production yesterday working on the new Cro-Mags album with my man Arthur Rizk. I can honestly say some of it sounds like if Cro-Mags would have written Master of Puppets! There are parts of it that remind me of Metallica meets Minor Threat, and there are parts of it that remind me of Bad Brains meet Metallica. And yet all of it sounds like Cro-Mags. Then I went and taught a kids Jiu-Jitsu class at Renzo Gracie Academy. Life is great, and I’m loving it!!!! ;)”
Perhaps his reclamation of the Cro-Mags name was a moment of reconciliation for Flanagan, who allegedly attacked members of Joseph’s version of the band with a hunting knife in 2012 backstage at Webster Hall in New York.