Music of New Jersey - Hard Rock and Heavy Metal

Hard Rock and Heavy Metal

Skid Row is a New Jersey-based heavy-metal band formed in the mid-1980s and reached the height of its success in the early 1990s. Sebastian Bach, formerly of Skid Row, is a Canadian singer who has lived in New Jersey for almost two decades and has fronted several bands since his departure from Skid Row. Since the early 1980s, the New Jersey bands Overkill and Hades has been recording and performing thrash metal around the world. Trixter is a glam rock band also from New Jersey. Monster Magnet is a well known Stoner Rock/Metal band from Red Bank with 8 lp's (on elektra and other labels). Ripping Corpse is a well known Thrash Metal band from Red bank which features Scott Ruth from The Beast and Erik Rutan who later joined Morbid Angel. Dillinger Escape Plan is a Mathcore band formed in Morris Plains. New Jersey is also home to the highly acclaimed progressive power metal band Symphony X, and funeral doom metal band Evoken. Brielle native Mark Tornillo was the lead singer for New Jersey metal band T.T. Quick and is now the lead singer for the German metal band Accept.

Music historian and broadcaster Eddie Trunk, with comedians Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine, host the television show That Metal Show on VH1 Classic which celebrates, "all things hard rock and heavy metal." All three hosts are from New Jersey and are very active in the hard rock and metal scene. Trunk also hosts a nationally syndicated radio show spotlighting hard rock and metal music.

An arguably significant part of the New Jersey Metal scene includes the Old Bridge Metal Militia. They were a group of the "most extreme," metal heads who lived in the town Old Bridge, New Jersey. This group would encourage bands, who were touring the area, to stay at their homes when they were in town for a gig. Bands like Slayer, Metallica, Anvil, and Motorhead (to name a few). They would get these bands to play at parties in their basements. The Old Bridge Metal Militia were even immortalized in song. The Megaforce compilation Born to Metalize has a track called "One Night in Old Bridge," while Blessed Death had a song called "Knights of Old Bridge".