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THE RODS
Wild Dogs Unchained

Massacre (2025)
Rating: 8/10

The Rods always seemed like heavy metal veterans, even during their early career. There was always something well-worn and weather beaten about the New York band’s greasy biker metal, the sort of tried, tested and tough scrap heap of sound you wanted to drink and brawl too.

Seeing the rockers return, albeit just a year after their tenth opus (Rattle The Cage), brings a smile, probably because original members David “Rock” Feinstein (vocals and guitar) and Carl Canedy (drums) are still present from the late 70s. The trio is made up by Freddy Villano (bass), whose joined in 2020.

With The Rods, you know what’s coming and yet somehow the steamroller still catches up with you, mowing you down with Canedy’s percussion. There are also a few extra layers of keyboards from Lonnie Park dotted about the place which gives the band a Rainbow-style of sound. It’s still very much a no-holds barred The Rods album though, even if my stomach turns at the sight of the digitally created cover art.

I noticed a few shades of Deep Purple too, like with ‘Run, Run, Run’, and one particular track I’ve had on heavy rotation has been ‘Tears For The Innocent’, an absolute whopper of a power ballad with a run time close to seven minutes and showcasing Feinstein’s rich and soulful vocal traits amidst some ascending crescendos of doom.

Another seven-minute gem of similar epic standing is ‘World On Fire’, which again is wealthy in its doomy majesty and fused with balladry of the highest order not far removed from the magic of Dio. Such slabs are balanced well with the more straight laced numbers, namely ‘Rock And Roll Fever’.

My only criticism here is that the album features three re-workings of older The Rods numbers: ‘Hurricane’, ‘Wild Dogs’ and ‘Make Me A Believer’. I’d have much preferred three new songs, but these re-imagined versions sound surprisingly decent, even if less raw and gritty due to the healthier production.

The trio is becoming rather prolific the older they get and as the saying goes: “You can’t keep an old dog down”.

Neil Arnold

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