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Venerable New York metal mavens The Rods return in 2024 with their tenth studio album and fourth since their heyday in the '80s. This one is called Rattle the Cage and is a cool slab of meat and potatoes, hard rocking heavy metal that is played loud and proud. There are some extra elements here and there, like the old school, Rainbow-esque keyboards on "Now and Forever," but for the bulk of Rattle the Cage, The Rods are content to dish out piles of riffs, booming drums, and lyrics about metal life. I find the songwriting stronger than their last album (2019's Brotherhood of Metal) with some really fun tracks like the aforementioned "Now and Forever," the pounding "Shockwave," and the ass-kicking closer, "Hearts of Steel." This one really gets the blood pumping and makes me want to see the band live and throw a fist in the air when they play it. The rest of the album is solid and reminds me a lot of contemporary Anvil, from the simplicity of the songwriting approach and excellent leads to the vocals, which sound a lot like Lips, both in terms of David Feinstein's actual voice as well as his vocal lines. Rattle the Cage is a nice addition to The Rods' catalog and one to grab if the hard-rocking metal of the '80s is your thing.