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THE RODS
Live At Rose Hall
Independent Release

A few weeks ago I did an album review of the brand new opus from Colorado's Power Metal legends JAG PANZER. And I mentioned a few of other early 80's bands who had a major impact on me in the formative years of U.S. Metal. But I couldn't go on forever, so that left a couple of bands not mentioned. But one of those bands easily in that discussion were Cortland, New York's THE RODS. When their Arista Records debut (1981) showed up in my local Hastings Records store (R.I.P.) I immediately grabbed it even though I knew nothing about the band or their songs. As I've discussed on numerous reviews before, no computers or YouTube or other such things back in the day. Word of mouth or you just took a chance and swung for the fences. And luckily for me, THE RODS debut kicked my ass but good with a power trio that delivered the goods!

Some people, but not many, know that guitarist Dave 'Rock' Feinstein was cousins with the legendary Ronnie James Dio (R.I.P.), or that they played together in the band ELF (1972, self-titled) who opened for DEEP PURPLE. And when Ritchie Blackmore left DEEP PURPLE to start his own band, he grabbed everyone in ELF except another guitarist to form RAINBOW (1975, RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW). Drummer Carl Canedy's early band was called KELAKOS, with their Gone Are The Days album released in 1978 on Primal Records. And that was the record label that incidentally released the very first THE RODS album, called Rock Hard in 1980. That was initially only released in 1000 copies, but has recently been reissued. Whew!

So as you've just seen, the core of the band has been Carl & Rock. There's been several bassists through the years, but the longest standing member throughout THE RODS glory years was Garry Bordonaro, who also possessed an amazing voice and sang several classic songs. He left in 2020, and his spot has been claimed by Freddy Villano, who has played with the legendary Dee Snider among other bands. This little history lesson leads up to the brand new release from THE RODS, that being Live At Rose Hall. Recorded on July 15, 2022, it was Freddy's first gig and talk about being thrown into the frying pan! Your first gig being videoed and recorded!

The one thing that I can tell you is this is truly live, warts and all. A few bum notes, Rock's voice cracks a little here and there, but what you hear is what you get. Recorded in their hometown of Cortland at Rose Hall, the band goes through 12 songs, with the old school drum and guitar solos equalling out to 14 total. A clean crisp sound greets you is the first thing you notice. That's one thing that THE RODS have usually always had, is s quality sound. First three songs all come off the 2019 CD, that being the title track and opener "Brotherhood Of Metal", followed by "Evil In Me" and "Louder Than Loud". If you're unfamiliar with those tracks, Live is always a great way to check out songs or even bands you don't know. "I Just Wanna Rock" comes off the 2011 album Vengeance. It's not until the fifth track that THE RODS get to some classic and familiar territory, with "Violation" off of the classic Wild Dogs album from 1982. The tale of getting caught with an underaged female. I can't tell you how many bands and songs there were from the 70's and early 80's about that. In fact you can make a Mixtape or CD there's so many! Carl's drum solo is next, "Rabid Thunder", which incidentally is also what his drum solo off the 1983 Live album on Combat Records was called. Next is "Too Hot to Stop" the opener off of Wild Dogs and another classic track. Rock's guitar solo's next and that leads to the killer track "Hurricane", which came off 1983's In The Raw on Shrapnel Records. Easily the standout track on that album. Back to the new stuff with "Ride Free or Die" off of Vengeance, then "Cold Sweat & Blood", a creeper off of 1986's Heavier Than Thou, the album that featured vocals from Shmoulik Avigal (R.I.P.), who sang on the classic album from one my early favorite bands from Holland, PICTURE (Diamond Dreamer - 1982). Next is another off "Heavier Than Thou", "Born To Rock", before the final two songs, the 1-2 punch of the songs that made me a RODS fan, off the self-titled debut (And Rock Hard), that being "Power Lover" and "Crank It Up". When I first heard these songs as a junior in High School they were powerful tracks that were as heavy as anything out at the time!

Good to see THE RODS still out there doing their thing. They may not be able to hit all the notes anymore, and I'm not sure how many young Metalheads will gravitate to THE RODS with the thousands of bands that are out there today, but for us old geezers, it'll bring back some good memories of simpler times.

As far as I could gather, CD & download only. No Wax.

3.0 Out Of 5.0 Skulls