Iron Cross was a punk rock band from Washington D.C. They played a rough form of street punk and the first band in the US to adopt the skinhead look and the Oi! musical style. Some of its members had close ties to the Washington hardcore punk subculture, due to its relationship with other hardcore bands, with Ian Mackaye, and with Dischord Records. Singer Sab Grey was one of the many roommates in the Dischord House in Arlington, Virginia. The band's name, and the fact that most of its members were skinheads, led to accusations of fascism, which Grey and others in the band and the original D.C. skins, always denied, declaring that they "hate Nazis". Career Iron Cross formed in 1980, when Dante Ferrando met Sab Grey. Ferrando was previously in the band Broken Cross with Mark Haggerty. When Grey and Ferrando decided to start a new band, Grey suggested the name Iron Cross. The first line-up consisted of Grey on lead vocals, Haggerty on guitar, Ferrando on drums and John Falls on bass guitar. This lineup lasted a very short time, with Falls leaving after Iron Cross's early show at American University. After Falls' departure, the band went through two more bassists before settling on Wendel Blow, the former bassist for the D.C. hardcore punk band State of Alert. The only non-skinhead in the band was Ferrando, who maintained a spiky punk hairstyle. The band's fourth lineup lasted until just after the recording of their first EP, Skinhead Glory. That EP features their signature song "Crucified", which was later covered by many Oi! and hardcore bands. After Blow left the band, he was replaced by John Dunn. Dunn had been an original member of the D.C. skins and was close friends with the band's members. Dunn left the band just before the release of their second EP, Hated and Proud. He was replaced by Paul Cleary, who was a founding member of the D.C. bands Trenchmouth and Black Market Baby. The 1982 Dischord Records compilation Flex Your Head introduced three Iron Cross songs to an audience beyond the eastern United States. In 1985, after further line-up changes that left Grey as the only original member of Iron Cross, the band broke up. Ferrando formed the band Gray Matter with Haggerty. Haggerty went on to play with the bands 3 and Severin. Ferrando also played in the band Ignition