RAHWAY – Rahway (2025)

RAHWAY, also known as The Slumlords of New Jersey, is a national recording artist under Pavement Entertainment. They mix heart with the hardest blistering rock this side of Rocky Mountains. They’ve ensured to get any crowd moving with their intense guitar driven live show, something you can hear on their new, self-titled album “Rahway“.

The band’s name comes from their hometown – Rahway is a city in southern Union County, in New Jersey State. The fun thing is Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler baptized the band: “Our original name was SUN when we were working with Aerosmith’s producer Jack Douglas for our first EP. Jack got to talking about us and Steven Tyler didn’t like our name. At the time we were rehearsing in Rahway, Steven Tyler said we should just name the band Rahway. Who are we to argue. (laughs)”
Rahway sound is a high-octane blend of old-school metal, modern hard rock, and raw, streetwise attitude.
The lineup features Nick Hade on vocals, David Cardenas on guitar, Chigger on bass (a veteran of the NJ scene), and Steve Cardenas on drums – each bringing power and precision to every song here: heavy riffs, big vocals, and an unapologetic energy that’s 100% Jersey.

Fully capturing the spirit of today’s DIY musicians, these four badasses play the music the want to, uncompromising heavy rock. Embodying the down-to-earth Jersey roots, but rolling the rock to high volume. Rahway has been pat of the East Coast music scene for over two decades, playing shows with such rock greats like Buckcherry, Slash, Skid Row, KIX, Ace Frehley, Greta Van Fleet and they even shared the stage with popster Missing Persons one time.
Numbers like ‘Only the Strong’, ‘Cage the Animal’, ‘Drowning’, ‘Outta Know’ mix the old with the new, with influences from latter day Skid Row and Slash to Bulletboys and Ugly Kid Joe, at places with a modern rock infusion.

”Rahway” rocks hard, and surprises including a cover of ‘Jet’ originally by Paul McCartney And Wings. ‘Acetylene’ has a spikey, raw, defiant feel. ‘Only The Strong’ is a rocking, groovesome track which shows its true colors through wailing guitars and vocals, underpinned by pounding yet slick drums.
‘Sugar’, on the other hand, is a complete curveball – it’s a gentle (ish), dare we say it … rock ballad (again, ish) … And ‘Jet’ is, well, ‘Jet! with its Woo-ooooo chorus.
Slumlords Of New Jersey is a solid statement for these guys. They rock hard with a street attitude here.
Highly Recommended

01 – Stone
02 – Carry You
03 – Only the Strong
04 – Cage the Animal
05 – Sugar
06 – Pain in My Ass
07 – Drowning
08 – Acetylene
09 – Outta Know
10 – Rocketship
11 – Jet

Nick Hade – vocals
David Cardenas – guitar, vocals
Chigger – bass, vocals
Steve Cardenas – drums

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