THE RODS "Brotherhood of Metal"

THE RODS

“Brotherhood of Metal”

I’ve got no problem with metal giants of the past keeping their flame burning, but that fire has got to burn brightly and not as a feeble reflection of what has gone before. THE RODS have always played a basic, gritty kind of heavy metal rooted in rock n roll. Their first four albums had an honest feeling that helped elevate their simple music to a strong level.

With “Brotherhood of Metal”, the simplicity just doesn’t hold up. At some points, it is embarrassingly dumbed down. Every riff here sounds second hand and old hat...once in a while, THE RODS can get away with it, but not like they used to. “Party All Night” is metal for fourth graders and it’s a sad thing to see guys in their 60’s doing stuff like this. Worse than any of the music are the lyrics. I sure don’t expect anything deep from this band, but this makes ANVIL’s lyrics sound like they were written by Neil Peart. Cliche beyond cliché…

The title track starts things strangely with a 7 minute plus tune that starts like a MANOWAR piano ballad before finally heavying up. Speaking of which, keys are a constant presence here.  The one saving grace throughout the record is the sharp guitar work of Rock Feinstein, which is deeply rooted in the classics. When he jams, you can forget the atrocious lyrics and tired riffs. That being said, at no point in THE RODS history has he been a great singer and he hasn’t gotten any better here.

There are some cuts where the ghost of early RODS pops up. “1982” is a real good gritty rocker and the lyrics work because the band are talking about their own history, name dropping all the bands they played with in the past. “Smoke On The Horizon” and “Tyrant King” are also not too bad, but neither do they rival old classics like “Hurricane”.

I get what they are trying to do, I really do, but there are limits to how basic and second hand metal can be and “Brotherhood of Metal” is just not on the level this band should really be at. Time to hang it up…

SPV RECORDS

THE RODS