Review by Daniel for Rods, The - The Rods (1981)
Three-piece hard rockers The Rods formed in New York City back in 1980 but their lineup is most notable for the inclusion of vocalist/guitarist David “Rock” Feinstein who had previously played with fellow New York hard rock outfit Elf from 1970-1973 alongside his cousin; the legendary Rainbow & Black Sabbath frontman Ronnie James Dio. Interestingly enough, David is a really great hard rock front man whose talent appears to have been wasted in Elf although it’s not hard to understand why considering Ronnie sits amongst the greatest singers in rock history. Anyway… whilst there is definitely more metal in The Rods sound than there was in Elf’s I have to admit that I still don’t consider them to be a metal band at this stage. I’ve read on numerous occasions that The Rods showcased some early speed metal elements on this record however that’s obviously stretching things much further than I’m comfortable with. Personally I hear far more examples of traditional hard rock in the vein of Aerosmith, AC/DC & Deep Purple than I do genuine metal on “The Rods” with only a couple of legitimate metal contenders. In fact, there are a few really bluesy numbers here too.
The Rods recorded & released their debut album “Rock Hard” completely independently less than a year after forming but were signed shortly afterwards & the 1981 self-titled release we are talking about here sports a tracklisting that includes re-recordings of many of the songs from “Rock Hard”. The highlight of the album is a song called “Nothing Going On In The City” which is also by far the heaviest song on the record with an opening riff that seems to be heavily influenced by Black Sabbath’s “Neon Knights” while hard rocker “Music Man” sounds a lot like a rip-off of David's cousin’s “Man On A Silver Mountain” song from the “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow” album to my ears & you can comfortably sing the Rainbow vocals over it without even realizing it’s a different band.
David’s voice is definitely well suited to a hard rock sound & I can hear a lot of Foreigner in his delivery at times although he does excel when he gives it more oomph on the more metal numbers to be honest. But while I really enjoy his vocal performance, he’s also a very capable bluesy hard rock guitarist & his solos have quite a lot of impact. The other band members are obviously fairly experienced musicians too which sees The Rods coming across like a well-oiled machine as the performances are all very tight & well executed.
The album cover for “The Rods” looks suspiciously like the debut album from The Ramones with the band all standing against a crumbling brick wall wearing denim & leather. I’d be very surprised if this is not an intentional replication from the label.
The production lacks a bit of gloss but it’s by no means poor & won’t get in the way of you enjoying the album. What WILL detract from your enjoyment though will be the fact that for the most part the songs lack the hooks to make you want to come back for repeat listens. There’s only a couple of real standout tracks in my opinion while the rest seem to drift past without making much of an impact. Some of that can be put down to how generic some of these songs are in both theme & style. Out of interest The Rods drummer Carl Canedy went on to produce several major metal releases with Anthrax’s “Armed & Dangerous” & “Spreading The Disease”, Exciter’s “Violence & Force”, Overkill’s “Feel The Fire” & Possessed’s “Beyond The Gates” all benefiting from his expertise in the coming years.
All up this is a pretty generic hard rock record that lacks the x-factor required for The Rods to stand out from the competition.