FLY BY NIGHT

Fly by Night is more hard rock than anything else, but still a solid second effort by the group! Not their best album, but definitely not their worst. Drummer John Rutsey had left the group and in his place, present-day drumming icon, Neil Peart.

The first side starts with Anthem, a catchy hard rock song that is in my opinion, one of the better songs on the album. Next is Best I Can which is a pretty simple and forgetable rock song. Beneath, Between, and Behind is a good song, but a shadow in comparison to the great By-Tor and the Snow Dog. By-Tor is my favorite song on the album. It's probably Rush's first progressive track, and paves the way for the epics next to come. Overall great way to end the first side.

Side two starts with Fly by Night, which is a slower song than the first half, but very catchy and good overall. Making Memories is a very average acoustic track Zeppelin-style, but still much better than the following Rivendell which I find very boring and the weakest link on the album. Finally, In the End is a good way to end a good album. It starts off slow but builds up and then settles back down.

Overall: 3/5 stars. Better than the debut, but I enjoyed all their albums after this until Signals.