Tag: Album Review

ALBUM REVIEW – THE RODS

The Rods – Rattle The Cage

Reviewed By: Tom Elke

Review Score: 8.5

The Rods

The Rods are a U.S. metal band that was started in late 1979 by drummer Carl Canedy (who was the first drummer for Manowar) and lead vocalist/guitarist David “Rock” Feinstein (Ronnie James Dio’s cousin). Adding bassist Garry Bordonaro to complete the lineup, they put out six albums, one EP and one live album through the 80s. While still remaining friends and always keeping in touch (and perhaps playing a gig here and there) the band finally reunited in 2008 to play a festival in Norway (The Rods are one of those bands that has always had that “street-cred” aura attached to them.) This prompted them to record the album Vengeance in 2011 and Brotherhood of Metal in 2019.

The Rods are now joined by bassist Freddy Villano and have a new a studio album entitled Rattle The Cage, with a release date of January 19th, 2024 on Massacre Records. The album is produced by The Rods (which of course includes Carl Canedy, who has forty plus albums to his producer credits) while being mixed & mastered by Chris Collier… giving Rattle The Cage a modern sounding metal album that still possesses The Rods’ style of traditional metal music. It sounds great!

The album features ten tracks, with a running time of approximately forty-nine minutes. It’s a mixture of tempos from slower, to mid-paced, to up-tempo tracks. There’s even some organ/keyboards spots that are sprinkled in by guest musician Lonnie Park, but it does not take anything away from The Rods classic sound… and classic sounding The Rods it is! Whether it’s great songs like ‘Hell Or High Water’, ‘Play It Loud’, ‘Now And Forever’ or the excellent title track, The Rods bring the same passion and power they brought back in their early days of existence. This is an excellent album of modern-sounding, traditional metal music.

Rattle The Cage track-listing:

Now And Forever
Wolves At The Door
Cry Out Loud
Rattle The Cage
Can’t Slow Down
Metal Highways
Hell Or High Water
Play It Loud
Shockwave
Hearts Of Steel

DISTANT SHOWS THEIR HERITAGE 

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: MARSWORTH

Brutal deathcore headbangers, Distant, are set to release their third full-length record under the name of Heritage via Century Media Records. The Netherlands and the Slovak Republic have produced some of the best and most notable death metal bands, and this is no exception. The group has been serving up pure metal to their loyal and trustworthy fans for nearly a decade and have no plans of stopping or slowing down. The band’s intensity travels through every word of their tracks to every one of their 266,000 Spotify listeners. Value of their music along with their listeners is truly unmatched and electrifying. Distant is fully prepared to show us their “Heritage” in the world in which they have single-handedly engineered.

Distant is:

  • Alan Grnja- Lead vocals
  • Elmer Maurits – Bass
  • Nouri Yetgin – Lead guitar
  • Vladimir Golic – Rhythm guitar
  • Jan Mato – Drums

Shall we talk about the elephant in the room? The band has broken standards and fought social norms by having a track with 16, you read that right SIXTEEN, guest vocalists. It’s absolutely unprecedented to have such a number of rockers on a track that isn’t charity related. Grnja said that the collaboration between the 16 singers was similar to the crossover between Spider-Man and the X-Men in the early 1990’s. Bringing such a fun anecdote to such a driven and virtuosic band makes the possible initial shock down a few notches to where it can be enjoyed by more than metal fans. In addition to such a powerful mid-record track, from track one all the way to twelve is such a journey in which no other downtempo band has done before and it feels monumental to be a part of history such as this. After having a whole pandemic to marinate in their tracks, the group had made their alterations until their masterpiece, Heritage, had wrapped production and is currently ready to hit the market in early February this year. Whilst using vivid imagery, the record comes to life before your very eyes which isn’t the easiest thing to master, but Distant makes it look easy.

The roar coming from Grnja is out of the world and gives me goosebumps every time I hear his voice come through my headphones. The genuine nature to the band as well as vocals is audible, especially embedded within this most recent record. Perhaps the heaviness behind the tracks goes to show the bona fide, unadulterated complexion of a world renowned metal group. The journey from “Acid Rain” to “Plaguebreeder” is a story in which will be put on stage in the coming months when they join Bodysnatcher, Angelmaker, and Paleface on tour. They all hope to see fellow metalheads throwin’ up their horns at a show near you! 

MARSWORTH SAYS: 8/10

TRACK LIST:

1. Acid Rain
2. Paradigm Shift
3. Born Of Blood
4. The Grief Manifest
5. Exofilth
6. Argent Justice
7. The Gnostic Uprising
8. A Sentence To Suffer
9. Human Scum
10. Heritage
11. Orphan Of Blight
12. Plaguebreeder