- advertisement -

THE RODS
Rattle The Cage
Massacre Records
https://www.therods.com/

They rocked hard, ate metal like it was a Denny's Grand Slam breakfast - and not one of their members are named Rod. Formed in Cortland, New York in 1979 and boasting a powerful, raw energy that led them on tours with the likes of JUDAS PRIEST, OZZY, IRON MAIDEN, MOTORHEAD and METALLICA among other big names in metal, THE RODS were a traditionally hard and heavy band whose individual members bridged a particularly solid link between them and many of their more well-known contemporaries. Frontman/guitarist David "Rock" Feinstein had started his musical career playing with 70's boogie rockers ELF alongside his cousin Ronnie James Dio before branching out into his own musical trajectory. With a lineup during the band's early incarnation that had included Joey DeMaio on bass before he later went on to join MANOWAR, THE RODS finalized a firm lineup consisting of Feinstein, bassist Garry Bordonaro and drummer Carl Canedy and were poised to stick out in the NYC music scene. They certainly had the momentum as well as the music as their raw-sounding heavy rock style combined with elements of early proto speed metal started with their debut album Rock Hard, continuing on with steady sophomore efforts such as Wild Dogs, In The Raw and their peak effort Let Them Eat Metal. By the end of 1986 after a poor showing of their release Heavier Than Thou, THE RODS had finally come apart. Feinstein and Bordonaro had mostly kept to honing their individual solo careers while Canedy found a name for himself as a producer, his past work including early thrash classics such as EXCITER's Violence & Force, ANTHRAX's Armed And Dangerous and Spreading The Disease and OVERKILL's Feel The Fire. Following a resurgence of popularity in Europe which had led to the band briefly reuniting for a series of overseas opening slots with DIO DISCIPLES in 2008, THE RODS made their return, adding to their already solid catalogue starting with 2011's comeback disc Vengeance and onwards.

And commemorating their upcoming 45th anniversary since their inception, THE RODS' most recent opus Rattle The Cage is the band's most inclusive-sounding disc since their comeback - and also its most faithful to its roots. And while the title suggests a mighty revolutionary awakening of sorts in the industry to herald their comeback, the music remains the best type of traditional hard rock/metal THE RODS are known for. "I don't feel like I've got something to prove" is the eternal motivator that Feinstein proclaims on the catchy straightforward banger "Play It Loud" and one which appears to resonate throughout the entire album. And while the overall album itself is rife with similar-sounding raw numbers including "Wolves At The Door", the RAINBOW-styled "Hell Or High Water" and the chest-thumping title track, its real strength lies in the fast-sounding thrashers such as "Metal Highways" and "Shockwave"; even 45 years on, the quick rhythm work of Bordonaro and Canedy still click with rapid precision while Feinstein's vocals remain clean yet hungry, unaffected neither by time nor by temptation. Otherwise, the real surprise standout gem on Rattle The Cage comes in the form of the 7 and a half minute long opus "Cry Out Loud", which teases the listener with a powerfully fast intro before launching into a slow-sounding bottom-end groove machine which echoes the early work of BLUE OYSTER CULT as Feinstein intentionally struts proudly into Buck Dharma territory and delivers some neat soloing in between.

Rattle The Cage is an album from a veteran band that, while staying as close to its signature sound as it possibly can, has no interest in grovelling for an opening slot on the next SLEEP TOKEN tour upon knowing what it would be compromising in exchange. And, yet, with so many of its own contemporaries whom they'd shared a stage with throughout the course of their own career closely approaching their own zenith, THE RODS continue to firmly hold the bridge connecting their past with their present on a course they'd long since beaten away from the predictability of the ever-changing contemporary mainstream. Maybe the Cage in question here is perhaps the one that the first-time listener has erected for themselves in skeptically questioning the ongoing existence of a band still happily active off and on after nearly a half century here? THE RODS are too busy loudly reclaiming back the stages they'd briefly conquered and forfeited over time to be dealing with semantics; perhaps the time is nigh for their audience to truly support the band with all of their might with the well-structured architecture of aggression within Rattle The Cage.

4.5 Out Of 5.0