The Rods debut album ranks with with Riot's first three albums and even those early Y&T classics as some of the most underrated heavy metal albums of all time. Far before their time, few were rocking this hard in the disco era of 1981. OF course there were scads of fans looking for heavy music as the growing New Wave of Heavy Metal was growing, especially in Europe. I wore the grooves off of this record back in the early 80's. The Rods play raunchy, dirty, American heavy metal. The band had melody, but they also had that attitude that only an American metal band could deliver at the time. Chock full of headbanging anthems from my youth, words cannot really describe the nostalgia trip that songs like "Power Lover", "Crank It Up", "Music Man" and the raucous "Nothing Going on in the City" bring. The music is delivered with a fast and furious, almost punk delivery from a young and energetic band. You can almost feel the hungry energy of the band. David "Rock" Feinstein tears up the fretboards like few others were doing at this time. Of course Feinstein had formerly made a name for himself as the guitarist for Elf, with his cousin Ronnie James Dio. (Feinstein played on Elf's debut album). Songs like the bluesy, melancholy "Woman" even bring in some of those 1970's influences. Likewise "Get Ready to Rock 'n' Roll" has some guitar work that reminds me of Rainbow's "Long Live Rock n Roll".
long live rock and roll rainbow rar
DOWNLOAD: https://tweeat.com/2vENcI
The Rods third album came after being dropped by Arista Records and was initially recorded as a demo. Without a label the band settled for Shrapnel Records and released "In the Raw" as it was recorded in it's demo for. "In the Raw" is actually a good name for this CD as the recording has that raw, live feel to it. Some may sneer at the less than perfect recording, but those of us who know and love metal can appreciate the charisma that the production brings to this album. Actually, I think this live feel works to The Rods benefit and gives them a power that may have been lost, had the production been overly polished. Musically, the band continues down similar roads as their last two, punching out chunky, hard rocking, heavy metal. "Witches Brew" ranks among one of the Rods finest cuts. "Another Night On The Town" is another of those songs influence heavily by Ritchie Blackmore. The main riff in this particular tracks reminds me of "Man on a Silver Mountain". While this may seem to be 'stealing' a riff, it is clear that Fienstien was merely playing tribute to the man that inspired him to pick up a guitar.
The Rods - Heavier Than Thou / Hollywood (Passport) 1986 Heavier Than Thou 1. Heavier Than Thou (1:46) 2. Make Me a Believer (4:06) 3. Angels Never Run (3:29) 4. Crossfire (4:37) 5. I'm Gonna Rock (3:14) 6. She's Trouble (4:13) 7. Born to Rock (3:45) 8. Chains of Love (4:02) 9. Communication Breakdown (3:18) 10. Fool for Your Love (3:47) 11. Cold Sweat and Blood (3:22) 12. The Music Man (0:44) Hollywood 13. Prisoner of Love 14. Love Is Pain 15. Tokyo Rose 16. Make Your Move 17. Mississippi Queen 18. Heat of the Night 19. All American Boys 20. Don't Take It So Hard 21. Money "Heavier Than Thou" would be the last album for The Rods as a power trio until 2011. It was also the first album not to features the classic Feinstein, Bordonaro and Canedy line-up. Bassist Craig Gruber came in to replace Gary Bordonaro. "Heavier Than Thou" is a diamond in the rough album, an under-rated gem, an over-looked heavy metal masterpiece. No, it's not progressive, or thrashy, or glammy, or any of those styles of music that were overshadowing good old heavy metal in 1986. Rather it's just blue-collar, anthemic heavy metal at its finest. The Rods are heavy rock in the spirit of Motorhead, though the two bands do not sound alike. The albums opens with a minute-and-a-half intro that is built around vocal harmonies and keyboards before launching into "Make Me a Believer", an aggressive yet melodic track that is the basis for the sound on his album. Follow-up track "Angels Never Run" features of a killer hook and could have been a hit for the band, but unfortunately flew under the radar. There are some brooding slower tracks such as "Fool For You Love", fist-pumping heavy metal anthems such as "I'm Gonna Rock" and some double-bass driven speedy numbers like "Crossfire". There is even a cover of Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown". The Rods "Heavier Than Thou" should be held up in the high esteem with the upper echelon heavy metal bands of the 80's. Unfortunately it's a forgotten gem. "Hollywood" is thought of as a Rods album, though it was meant to me a completely seperate project and was the only album to not be a power trio. Joining along with the classic Feinstein, Bordonaro and Canedy line-up is vocalist Rick Caudle and keyboardist Emma Zale, who both help to give the band a more melodic and commercially viable edge. However, it's not a departure from the bands blue-collar heavy metal at all. In fact, it sounds like a natural progression from "Heavier Than Thou". As with most of The Rods albums, "Hollywood" features a cover song. This time around it's the classic Mountain track "Mississippi Queen". However, it's not the cover songs that make this album enjoyable. Rather it's originals such as the melodic "Tokyo Rose" and "Love Is Pain" as well as the more driving tracks such as album opener "Prisoner of Love" and "Money".
The Rods - Vengeance (Niji Entertainment Group) 2011 1. Raise Some Hell (4:23) 2. I Just Wanna Rock (4:59) 3. Rebels Highway (4:27) 4. Ride Free Or Die (4:11) 5. The Code (5:15) 6. Let It Rip (3:35) 7. Livin' Outside The Law (5:57) 8. Fight Fire With Fire (4:15) 9. Madman (3:42)10. Running Wild (4:42)11. Vengeance (4:46)The Rods are heavy metal pioneers. Their first album was released independently in 1980 when metal was just resurfacing from it's near death knell in the late 70's. In their prime they were underrated and didn't receive the accolades they deserved, instead they achieved the cult status and underground notoriety that bands like Anvil, Riot and Exciter received. In other words, they were a band that true fans of heavy metal adored. Those of us that hung around our local record stores, riffling through boxes of vinyls looking for those rare gems. Those days are, unfortunately, long lost to the internet and big chain stores like Wal-Mart who carry only a select few titles.As if 25 years hadn't passed since their last album as The Rods, the power trio returns with a new studio album that sounds as if it could have been the follow up to "Heavier Than Thou". Actually, truth be told, "Vengeance" sounds like it could have been the follow-up to "In the Raw" or "Let them Eat Metal". Musically, the band has stayed true to their roots. The only hint of a more modern sound is in the beefier recording and production. The albums first two cuts are prime The Rods. Both tracks are straight-forward, simple, ass-kicking American heavy metal. "Let it Rip" is a speed metal rocker and a definite standout cut on the disc. The album is also noteworthy as it features one of the very last studio recordings of the late, great Ronnie James Dio on vocals. Dio lends his veteran pipes to the doomy "The Code". Other standout cuts are "Running Wild" and the albums closing title track. This is a band that made strides to deliver an album that their die-hard fans would enjoy.Despite my overall joy of finally having something new from The Rods, "Vengeance" isn't a perfect album. There are a few songs that don't work as well as others. For instance, "Livin' Outside the Law", despite having a cool guitar solo section in the middle, is a bit of an awkward song. As well, some of the vocals are a little mundane and not quite up to the standards that band set on their 80's classics. However, these are minor complaints as I still find "Vengeance" to be an thoroughly enjoyable album.There is an error on the CD. The song "Let it Rip" is track 6, and "Livin' Outside the Law" is track 7. The tracks are not only mislabeled on the CD insert, but also if you put the disc into iTunes or play the song on a CD player with a digital reader, the two songs are incorrectly labeled on the disc itself.
Thumping bass riffs, majestic guitar playing from Blackmore, whose signature style is penetrating every song, injecting it its infectious hard rock power and mystical brilliance, tremendous vocal performance from Dio, and powerful drumming are present all throughout this perfect album - take the title track or the underrated 'Lady of the Lake', with its magnificent metallic riff, the fast-paced killer 'Kill the King' or the quite exceptional 'The Shed (Subtle)', the last two co-written with Powell (alongside Blackmore and Dio). The mystical explorations of the legendary 'Gates of Babylon' are always a more than welcome ear candy, the glorious folky and medieval mood of the closing track 'Rainbow Eyes' is perhaps the best song on the album, and one of the most impactful songs in Rainbow's entire catalogue, and this is one of the most mellow and emotive compositions of Blackmore. 'Sensitive to Light' is no less brilliant than anything else on this album, which is a pure classic and a model hard rock album, ranking as high as 'Machine Head', 'Led Zeppelin IV', 'Salisbury', or 'Paranoid' in the pantheon of rock music. Legendary release from a very significant band. social review comments Review PermalinkPosted Tuesday, September 13, 2022 Review this album Report (Review #2819915)
Blackmore was always up to the challenge and instead of recruiting past members to form some sort of reunion album took on the bold decision to recruit completely unknown but promising musicians who could reinterpret the classic RAINBOW sounds of the past and take them somewhere new. Blackmore was wise to avoid jumping on the bandwagon that many an 80s band did by trying to adapt to the alternative 90s and instead simply looked to the past and picked up right where the last RAINBOW album "Bent Out Of Shape" left off in 1983 thus making it a 12 year gap between albums and going back further by using the moniker RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW which hadn't donned an album cover since the 1975 debut.The new lineup included American bassist Greg Smith, drummer John O'Reilly, keyboardist Paul Morris, Blackmore's wife, backing vocalist and future partner in Blackmore's Night, Candice Night and on lead vocals Scotland born Doogie White who was somewhat of a departure from all the other vocalists who came before with a grittier heavy blues rock style of singing. Despite the congregation of unseasoned newbies on board STRANGER IN US ALL was an amazingly great album of 70s and 80s sounding heavy metal and hard rock tracks that excelled in crafting catchy guitar driven hooks and strong melodic emotive lyrics which sort of mined RAINBOW's past and included not only fantasy themes but more mainstream themes as well. The album was a true surprise in its consistency and although while not performing well in the English speaking world, did amazingly well in Europe and Japan where it was certified gold.Little wonder the American scene completely ignored this RAINBOW release since it basically gave the middle finger to anything 90s and proudly looked back and delivered one of the strongest sets of tracks in the band's eight album canon. The majority of the tracks were written by Blackmore and Doogie White. The opening "Wolf To The Moon" is by far the most metal on board and evoked the Dio years of RAINBOW along with more power metal intensity in the guitar riffs however the album cools down a bit in the energy department and remains in simple hard rock territory for the majority of the album's near 52-minute run. "Cold Hearted Woman" sounds more like something off of a Whitesnake album from the 1980 timeline but the following "Hunting Humans (Insatiable)" provides one of the catchiest bass stomp driven grooves with the most instantly addictive hooks."Stand And Fight," "Ariel" and "Too Late For Tears" also focus on heavy blues rock with strong hooks, dirty raw rhythms and despite being completely traditional are extremely well designed and performed. "Black Masquerade" reminds most of the Joe Lynn Turner years both compositionally and vocally. "Silence" is probably the track that sounds the most different from any other RAINBOW tracks despite a bluesy based riffing but still recognizable as a RAINBOW tune. The closing two tracks are the most different. "Hall Of The Mountain King" is a reinterpretation of an Edward Grieg piece from his most famous piece from "Peer Gynt" only arranged into a rockin' the classic hard rock extravaganza with Doogie White adding power metal vocals. The closing "Still I'm Sad" is a Yardbirds cover and if you have the Japanese version, the bonus track "Emotional Crime" is included but nothing extraordinary different to get excited about as it's just another blues rock song.Very rarely do such comeback albums yield anything worthy of investigating but Blackmore hit a home run with this little gem. While nothing that would make anybody love the band if they weren't already on board, STRANGER IN US ALL is nevertheless an extraordinarily strong album that takes RAINBOW to its next level and obvious conclusion that didn't quite happen before Blackmore suddenly shut things down and jumped back on the Deep Purple bandwagon the decade prior. For anyone who stayed with RAINBOW after Dio jumped ship, this is definitely one that should not be missed as it is chock filled with instantly addictive hard rock hooks and excellent instrumental interplay that sounds like a band of well seasoned professionals but are in fact all brand new to the RAINBOW scene. This was Blackmore's last album as a rock performer for 20 years before forming Blackmore's Night with his wife Candice Night and then eventually reviving the RAINBOW brand once again in 2015. Will there be another album from this band? Who knows but if this is the last one ever made, it's certainly not a bad way to go out. social review comments Review PermalinkPosted Thursday, June 24, 2021 Review this album Report (Review #2574228) 2ff7e9595c
댓글