The Rods – Rattle the Cage Review

What must we listeners suffer through at the start of the year? The Rods, that is what. Late-stage rockers with nothing to prove and little to gain from their tight trousers and tighter ties to a genre which has long passed them by. There is something to be said for living out the ghosts of the past though The Rods, on their latest record Rattle the Cage, are still dancing with corpses. Their influences are barely cold yet the work they deliver here shows signs of rigor mortis. Their rocking ways were around in the 1980s but never made it out of The Big Apple. For those in New York, congratulations, you survived alongside the men who toil in obscurity. Do they do anything with this time out of the spotlight? No. 

Get that pinkie and index finger in the air like you just do not care. The Rods do care, though their efforts are of a primitive and archaic variety. Opener Now And Forever reaches out for what dreams are made of, and the materials used in their production are elusive as ever – and quality eludes The Rods. Perhaps that is too harsh for the plodding rock rises, the consistencies of repetition on Wolves at My Door, the general feeling of stagnation is accepted as a comfortable, weighted blanket than a rotten dishcloth, and for many, the latter will be a warm feeling. More legacy acts are hanging up their hats and bowing out without so much as a glimmer of thanks. Cry Out Loud as The Rods do and stomp along with their generalised rock numbers.  

Their heavy metal days are over and this more standard rock record recedes into foot-tapping background noise. Title track Rattle the Cage hosts some nice guitar work though the outro-like attempt halfway through the track is just the beginning of a tired and predictable flush. Can’t Slow Down does exactly what it tries to rail against in its title, a slower, plodding methodical feel to it. Insane brains on Shockwave are of little shock variety to The Rods, who seem keen to recycle some material from previous tracks, let alone their earlier career peaks. Though Play It Loud has a regular consistency to it, the downtrodden feel of plain rock standards comes through far too frequently. 

Talk about wringing your biggest success, which even then was not a heady piece of work, Rattle the Cage is a catch-up with the Wild Dogs of old as this may be the last chance the band has to cash in on such a riveting success. The Rods do not rattle the cage as much as they slump up against it, coughing and wheezing as they shake their instruments to the beat of a drum they put a dent in decades ago. There they are, the cobweb-laden NYC rockers whose dog-related imagery failed to make a splash – and once more it fails. Sharper, smarter outfits of harsh metal are out there, The Rods fall behind and in line with the rest of those plucking away in their bedroom to covers of Deep Purple. Long may those people reign, but not when it is one of their more refined efforts.