Who knows why some bands achieve all the trappings of success whilst other, more talented, groups only attain cult status? In the case of New York’s The Rods, that riddle is all the more insoluble. With a powerful vocalist and a hard, no nonsense sound they seem to be holding all the aces, yet they never attained the commercial heights their talent warranted. Whatever the reason, it’s made all the more discombobulating by their latest album, Wild Dogs Unchained. Featuring a collection of new ragers alongside classic tracks rerecorded, this is a record that marks The Rods as a contemporary force and suggests that gold ring is still within their grasp.
If there was any doubts to The Rods’ continuing validity then they’re blown out the water by opening track ‘Eyes Of A Dreamer’. It’s a song that finds the band displaying all their experience to deliver a medium paced rocker that stomps like an angry Golem. The Rods don’t feel the need to arrive amongst an explosion of ticker tape and the bang of flash pots, there’s a strong focus on the riff here (which is exactly how it should be) and the band are so confident in their powers that they don’t have to rely on any extraneous frills (although it’s big on thrills). ‘Eyes Of A Dreamer’ is the kind of song that could stop a charging rhinoceros as is akin to a surprise uppercut from Tyson Fury. There’s something so refreshing metal about these songs and the result is fairly intoxicating; ‘Tears For The Innocent’ is a prime cut of the Viking variety and will fill your cranium with images of misty battlefields and swords and shields whilst the likes of ‘Rock And Roll Fever’ is the type of biker metal that never grows old, no matter how many miles are on the clock.
What Wild Dogs Unchained evidences is how well The Rods’ sound has aged. This is a brand of power metal (with the emphasis on the powerful) that inhabits the same kind of sonic space as Anvil and Exciter, and doesn’t try to be anything other than what it actually is. It’s a sound that captures that magical moment in time (say late 1982) when metal was morphing into thrash and ‘Make Me A Believer’ is played as such. It’s performed with the kind of energy you’d expect from a band half their age and sets things up nicely for the raging tempest that is closer ‘Hurricane’.
Such is the veracity with which these ten songs are played that it’s hard to tell which are new and which are classics rerecorded, they all rub shoulders rather nicely. An album that celebrates the past whilst simultaneously toasting the future, Wild Dogs Unchained suggests The Rods are going to be around for a while yet.
- Wild Dogs Unchained is unleashed via Massacre Records on 5th September 2025.
Track List:
1. Eyes Of A Dreamer
2. Rock And Roll Fever
3. Mirror Mirror
4. Tears For The Innocent
5. Wild Dogs Unchained
6. Time To Rock
7. Run Run Run
8. World On Fire
9. Make Me A Believer
10. Hurricane
