David “Rock” Feinstein, Garry Bordonaro, Carl Canedy… A story over thirty years long and the seventh studio album for the band. Many of you might remember that Rock used to play for the band Elf, along with his cousin, none other than the one and only Ronnie James Dio… The Rods first album was released in 1980 and… well, at some point, around 1986, they disbanded. Then they got involved in several activities, especially Canedy, who became a brilliant producer (Anthrax, Overkill, Exciter etc.). Members got back together in 2008 for a gig and it was probably a matter of time before they released this album, under the wings of the label Ronnie and Wendy Dio formed together.
Straight and powerful Heavy Rock, according to the Judas Priest principles, featuring some NWOBHM as well as Deep Purple spots… Opening track, “Raise some hell”, surely behaves that way. The tracks are mainly mid tempo ones, guitars are barbaric and the members share the vocals. Then they team up, vocally, for the choruses and then we’re off for those supersonic supersharp guitar solos. It’s like all those songs were written to kill the stage and they will do, it’s a fact!
Naturally, the song that will monopolize our talk about the album is the first single, “The code”, sung by Dio, one of the last songs the grand singer recorded before he became immortal…
