SNAKES & ARROWS

Rush was my first musical love, prog or not. Bought all of their studio output without question. But, after being pretty disappointed in Vapor Trails and Test for Echo, I just knew this one would be below par so put off buying it. Gone forever the days of counting down to release dates for this once great band. But then I get a $25 gift certificate to Amazon. Coma Divine and this set me back 6 bucks total. Coma Divine is an absolute monster. This is pretty bad stuff. All the songs sound the same and all our uninspired. Just imagine one of the straight forward songs from one of the previous two albums, write the same thing again and then write more songs almost just like it with a few variations thrown in and different lyrics. Gets boring fast. I'm sure Alex and Geddy's songwriting is contributing to Neil's depression even further at this point.

These three guys have none of the spark or hunger of the early years. Their imagination is shot. They last wrote an epic 26 years ago and I bet if you put a gun to their heads, they could not do it again. And what is a real crime is that this ranks above Power Windows, Hold Your Fire, Presto and Roll the Bones here on PA. All of those at least have some of the magic of what made this band great and I like them all. But, this is the end for me buying any of their stuff, assuming they release any more studio product.

The boys have not lost their chops as the band is still tight. The new producer, the one that was supposed to bring back the glory, does a fine job on the mix, but certainly was not the elixer that the old boys needed when it came to compositions. I give them credit and two stars for making an effort. Heaven knows they certainly aren't starving and the motivation to crank out product at this stage of their career has to be low. At a time when a lot of the older set are resting on their laurels, Rush gave it the old college try. And for those out there who are a whole lot less discriminating than me, I am sure they are lapping this up. This is Rush by the numbers, a rote exercise of utter blandness that will not be seeing much rotation in my CD player going forward. I hoped for better.