CARESS OF STEEL

Rush begin their plunge into full fledged prog waters in this kind of build up to "2112". "Caress Of Steel" is much the same as "2112" in terms of sound and style, but it lacks the finesse and elaborate sound of the following album. However, what it lacks in finesse it seems to make up for in it's sense of naivety. "Caress Of Steel" still carries the sound of a young band trying to find it's niche. Rush seem to be treading the middle ground between their early Zeppelin sound and that which would come forth on "2112". The result in itself is very interesting.

Lifeson creates some of his most memorable riffs on this album especially in the epic Fountain Of Lamneth where he resembles the style he would be using on "2112" and onward. His lead work still carries the aggression of heavy metal player at this point rather than the melodic style he would adopt later. With that being said his solos are fantastic most notably the lead work in Bastille Day which would be so powerful as to inspire the band name Majesty (pre-Dream Theater) which refers to Mike Portnoy's description of the track.

All songs on the album have their own appeal to them. The two epics have the progressive rock sound we've come to love from Rush, and the remaining tracks carry the Zeppelin sound of their first two albums. I Think I'm Going Bald is really more of a joke track, and really the only noticeable fault on the album besides a less than perfect, though not marred, production job.