Looking back at something always gives you a moment of clarity
\nwhich you should have seen coming.<\/p>\n
For example, people shouldn’t have been surprised that Rush
\nwould delve into concept album land (even if it only took up one
\nside) in 1976 with
\n2112<\/i>. In fact, Geddy Lee and crew had been building to that
\npoint, starting with the epic piece “By-Tor And The Snow Dog” on
\nFly By Night<\/i>. Their third album,
\nCaress Of Steel<\/i>, could be seen as the “pre-quel” to
\n2112<\/i>, even if it wasn’t nearly as strong an effort.<\/p>\n
If “By-Tor And The Snow Dog” was Rush’s test to see if they
\ncould indeed do a concept piece, then
\nCaress Of Steel<\/i> has the boys happily showing off their new
\nknowledge – often a little too much. The twelve-and-a-half minute
\npiece “The Necromancer” has some beautiful moments, especially in
\nthe closing segment “Return Of The Prince”, but the general
\nstoryline is a little difficult to follow. (Yeah, like the
\nstoryline in “By-Tor And The Snow Dog” came with a road map.) In
\nall, it’s not a phenomenal piece, but it’s enjoyable… even if
\nBy-Tor is brought back at the end of this piece. (Why does
\nsomething tell me both songs have their roots in Ayn Rand
\nstories?)<\/p>\n
The same can’t always be said for the full-side piece “The
\nFountain Of Lamneth” – a piece which, like “The Necromancer,” has
\nsections which are absolutely beautiful, but shows that Rush was
\nstill working on creating such long pieces which had a natural flow
\nto them. At times, if it weren’t for a signature guitar riff that
\nAlex Lifeson played, one might not realize that these six
\nselections were all tied together. (Yes, I know that the B-minor
\nguitar line from “2112” was used in certain passages to show the
\nsongs were intertwined, but at least those selections flowed and
\nebbed together.)<\/p>\n
In a sense, it’s almost as if “The Fountain Of Lamneth” was
\nwritten to prove that Rush was more than just a hard rock band –
\nexplained by the occasional dip into weirdness, especially noted on
\n“Didacts and Narpets” – what the hell was
\nthat<\/i> all about? By the time the listener reaches “The
\nFountain,” the sixth and final “chapter,” they find themselves
\nready for this piece to come to a merciful end. And, no, it’s not
\nthat I’m against Rush doing concept pieces, but they just hadn’t
\nfound their niche with this particular track.<\/p>\n
\nCaress Of Steel<\/i> shows Rush trying to grow as a band in more
\nthan just the concept pieces. The three short selections range from
\nthe powerful “rock-god” stance (“Bastille Day”) to the
\nintrospective and beautiful (“Lakeside Park”) – to the just plain
\nsilly and forgettable (“I Think I’m Going Bald”).<\/p>\n
\nCaress Of Steel<\/i> is a tentative step for Rush, one which
\nwould lead to their masterpiece in conceptual work. This particular
\nalbum is probably the most ignored from Rush’s early period, and it
\ndoes have moments which are definitely worth checking out. But it’s
\nnot the strongest outing from Rush.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5697],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37093","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-rush","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37093"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37093"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}