Genre: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
Country: U.S.A.
Label: Cult Metal Classics Records
Year: 1986/Re-realeased 2015
Piracy and copyright infringement is not an issue I am willing to display at the moment nor should it be part of an album review. It is however a fact that remarkable bands such as The Rods could have gone unfairly unnoticed, had it not been for peer-to-peer file sharing (I am doing my best to be politically correct so far). Releases like “Heavier than Thou” and “Hollywood”, apart from being extremely hard to find, are also very pricey and thus “forbidden” to the average metal fan. Enter local “Cult Metal Classics Records”, that works on our behalf to fill this gap by reissuing such records at an affordable price.
As far as the music is concerned, The Rods are David Rock Feinstein’s band (Feinstein is the cousin of the mighty Dio – r.i.p.). The band has been active through the years 1980-1987 and reunited in 2010 (with a new release in 2011). Overall they have recorded eight full-length albums under the name “The Rods”, and the album “Hollywood” under the name “Canedy, Feinstein, Bordonaro & Caudle”. They can easily be classified as American Heavy Metal with a close proximity to Hard Rock (the Hollywood release lies at the foot of Album Oriented Rock).
Digging into the releases’ quality, “Heavier than Thou” is their last ‘80s record and probably their best. Heavy metal hits from top to toe. “Make me a Believer”, “I’m gonna Rock”, “Born to Rock”, “Chains of Love” are notorious tracks but nothing is of lesser quality among the tracklist. Here and there we get glimpses of the band’s wilder rock’n’roll side: note the cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown”. “Hollywood” shares the same release year but under another name (the reason for that remains unclear). The tunes here are less rock’n’roll and more melodic. They start with lots of AOR influences, to sum it up with Heavy Metal anthems “Prisoner Of Love” and “Tokyo Rose” as well as some Alice Cooper-y vibe.
For those of you not familiar with The Rods, this is your great chance!
Now if you already know the band through some mp3 or youtube playlist, I’m sure you’ll get your hands on those releases soon enough. As for the score, there is no way to evaluate with our classic stars: diamonds go only by the carat!
(rated by Metal Invader Team)
5/6