ROLL THE BONES

The 90's were another one transitional season-the musical landscape changed dramatically again as grunge and alternative appeared in the horizon for good or bad... Many of the prog rock giants of the 70's had to adjust again to the new conditions but due to the force passing of grunge some of them never got away from the obscurity. It took half of a decade for things to start getting into the stream and we saw the ressurection of prog rock with bands like Spock's Beard or The Flower Kings. Anyway Roll The Bones is the last but one album from the third period of Rush which started with Hold Your Fire in 1986 and ended with Counterparts in 1993. It is a very decent album filled with very good songs, of course more rock oriented and not as inventive as in previous albums, but in terms of the conditions pre-said this one is a small jewel. I can easily assort five songs from this album which are all above average and this is something special in an album to find half of the songs at that level. Dreamline, Bravado, Roll The Bones(very inventive and brave middle part adjusting some hints of hip-hop sounds), Where's My Thing(strong instrumental effort) and last but not least, Ghost Of A Chance which in my opinion is the best song of the album. I will give four stars to this album due to a blend of nostalgia for these years which I bought it and the sense that it was again a hard time for prog music.