Author: UberAdmin

The name of The Rods is, quite rightly, deeply embedded in the history and mythos of the US metal scene. Formed in 1980 by David ‘Rock’ Feinstein, at the time best known as the cousin of Ronnie James Dio, alongside whom he had played in Elf in the first half of that band’s career. By 1982 The Rods had settled on what many fans regard as their seminal line-up, with Feinstein joined by bassist Garry Bordonaro and drummer Carl Canedy. It was this line-up that recorded what is still regarded, not least at ÜRHQ, as one of THE seminal American heavy metal albums of the early Eighties – ‘Wild Dogs’: it was an album that even helped them to bother the mainstream charts, thanks to their manic cover of the Motown classic ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’. Inevitably, as seemed to be de rigeur at that time, things quickly headed south, with their brief moment in the spotlight being just that, as dwindling record sales and label disinterest led to the band splitting in 1986. While Canedy embarked on a career in production (he helmed Anthrax’s ‘Spreading The Disease’ and Overkill’s ‘Feel The Fire’ among many others), Feinstein and Bordonaro virtually disappeared from sight, re-emerging some two decades later when they re-united for what was supposed to be a one-off festival appearance in Norway. Three years later, however, it seemed that the trio were back for the longer haul, with the 2011 release of ‘Vengeance’ and then… well, eight more years of silence, until now!