HEMISPHERES

Hemispheres is probably Rush's most progressive work,due to it's structure and compositions as a whole.While there is a good share of excellent moments,the band's main issues are screaming out loud here at several passages.One of the most regrettable problems of this album is the sub-par and exagerated vocal performance of Geddy Lee,extremely high-pitched(much above the usual)and which ends up taking away some of the raw magic of the Lifeson/Peart heavy outfits.

The first composition is a progressive rock song by all means,a heavy and pompous one.Following the song by the same name in the previous album,this suite is focused on a silly story that is however made interesting by some very good lyrics.The driving percussion and usual heavyness of Alex Lifeson's Les Paul riffing lead the piece along it's movements,alternating between pure prog-metal parts and more melodic passages.All theses moments are however slightly spoiled by the aforementioned vocals of Lee,unecessarily dramatical at times and almost annoyingly treble.All in all,a very nice and insteresting song,flawed as it is.It's important to take notice that this piece may take some time in order to be appreciated,as one tends to judge it by it's clear issues at first.

The other side of the original LP features a weak(though enjoyable)rocker named Circumstances,a great,brief and heavy tune which tells the story of a conflict between Maples and Oaks(The Trees) and the album's main attraction and best moment,La Villa Strangiatto.The latter is a 10-minute instrumental suite which starts as a classical acoustic guitar workout and eventually evolves to a wilderness of heavy arrangements and thundering guitar/percussion duels,all crowned by Rush-fashioned consistent riffing.

This record ocassionaly suffers from an overdose of too-heavy arrangements,giving Hemispheres an exageratedly loud spectrum.Maybe this is just my opinion not being much of a Rush fan,but the truth is this was a frequent problem in their early years.Later on,the band would learn to master their on sound and produce more subtle and equlibrated albums such as the outstanding Moving Pictures,but here there was still too much of their dominant heavy spirit.

Despite being a somehow incomplete and rather flawed album,Hemispheres presents some very nice prog offerings,containing songs that, even though have been made dated by the passing of time,still manage to please in the overall picture,as long as one can listen to them as less skeptically as possible.