BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer
Metal group Lamb of God is headlining the Sounds of the Underground tour, an all-day music festival, featuring nearly two dozen metal and hardcore bands from around the world. The tour will make its way to Sayreville Saturday. SAYREVILLE — This weekend, the underground will come to the surface.
Starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, the Starland Ballroom parking lot on Jernee Mill Road will host the Sounds of the Underground tour, a new national tour package featuring metal and hardcore bands from all over the world.
The 26-date tour began June 25 in Lowell, Mass., and will run through the end of July.
Canadian extreme metal group Strapping Young Lad (from left to right: Devin Townsend, vocals and guitar; Gene Hoglan, drums; Byron Stroud, bass; Jed Simon, guitar) are one of nearly two dozen bands who will be performing Saturday. According to Jon Vena, publicity director for the Starland Ballroom and its owner, Concerts East, this is the first national tour package aimed squarely at fans of more extreme metal and hardcore bands.
“We’re absolutely excited about this,” he said. “This is the dawn of a new package tour that serves an audience that doesn’t have its own package tour.”
The Sounds of the Underground tour features nearly two dozen bands from around the world including A Life Once Lost, featuring band members from Philadelphia, Pa., and Freehold in Monmouth County; Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad; and Opeth, from Sweden.
Headlining the tour is death metal band Lamb of God, from Virginia.
According to D. Randall Blythe, lead singer of Lamb of God, the Sounds of the Underground tour is “for the fans, not some executive’s paycheck.”
“Corporate politics had no part in the formation of this tour,” he said in a press release.
Tour packages aimed at heavy metal music audiences have increased in recent years.
Ozzfest, a national tour package created in the 1990s by rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, has typically been aimed at a more mainstream heavy music fan base; the Warped Tour, which will be held in August at Raceway Park in Old Bridge, has focused primarily on punk rock; and Gigantour, another new tour package, created by Dave Mustaine of heavy metal band Megadeth, features bands rooted primarily in the metal genre.
The Sounds of the Underground tour was created when Carl Seversen and Paul Conroy of Ferret Music, based in New Brunswick, Larry Mazer, manager for Lamb of God, and Tim Borror of Face the Music Booking in Mount Holly weren’t sure where their bands would be playing this summer.
“[As a rule], bands can’t play Ozzfest two years in a row,” said Maria Ferrero, owner of Adrenaline PR, a public relations firm in Freehold that has also been involved in the tour. “They’re too heavy for Warped Tour. So, they wondered what they can do to [bring] bands to the next level.
“The Sounds of the Underground tour takes them from the smaller clubs and puts them in the arenas and bigger clubs,” she added.
Though the all-day concert is being held outside Saturday, Vena said he doesn’t expect there to be any problems with noise or other problems that can come from an outdoor concert.
“We have a long history of doing events outdoors,” he said, noting that Concerts East is also handling the Warped Tour. “We do lots of outdoor stuff.”
Ferrero said the Sounds of the Underground tour is “the beginning of a new era for heavy and hard music.”
“The party is coming your way,” Blythe said. “Show up with your dancing shoes and help us bring the ruckus.”
Tickets are $29.50 plus applicable surcharges.