The Rods is an American heavy metal band formed in 1978 by David "Rock" Feinstein (guitar and vocals), Garry Bordonaro (bass and vocals) and Carl Canedy (drums and vocals). Feinstein had first come to mainstream attention after playing in Elf, with his cousin Ronnie James Dio. The Rods sound differed considerably from Elf, adopting a more traditional heavy metal sound compared with the blues-rock sound that Elf preferred. Their first album was originally released independently as Rock Hard in 1980 and the following year the band was signed by Arista Records, who reordered the album tracks and released it simply titled The Rods. Their second album Wild Dogs followed in 1982 and was re-released in 2004. The Rods' third album, released 1983, was entitled In the Raw. In 1984 Canedy and Bordonaro played on Jack Starr's album Out of the Darkness with Rhett Forrester of Riot and Gary Driscoll of Rainbow. Then in 1984 The Rods made their fourth studio album Let Them Eat Metal and recorded the album The Rods Live. Their album Heavier Than Thou was originally released in 1986. An album was also released that features all of the band's members, entitled Hollywood - Canedy, Feinstein, Bordonaro, & Caudle. Canedy is also a producer of heavy metal bands, and his credits include Anthrax's Armed and Dangerous and Spreading the Disease, Exciter's Violence & Force, Overkill's Feel the Fire, and Possessed's Beyond the Gates In 2008 the Rods announced that they were reuniting. In August 2008 they played at the Metal Rock Fest in Lillehammer, Norway to support a new album.