COUNTERPARTS

On this album, Rush went heavier. In fact, this might be the heaviest of all of their albums. I enjoyed it more than the previous few album, but nowhere near as much as the earlier, more progressive albums.

The performances are spectacular. Neil Peart's drums are powerful and complex at the same time (How doe he do that?). Alex Lifeson's guitar playing is more aggressive than usual. And Geddy Lee's bass playing is , as always, superb. Even his voice is less annoying than usual throughout the album.

The songwriting stays mostly within the straight ahead hard rock to metal range, but the performances on the album are so good, it transcends the genre.

The closest they get to prog is on Leave That Thing Alone, which isn't as good as instrumentals like YYZ or La Villa Strangiato, but it suffices.

4 stars. With this effort, and better songs, it could have been a masterpiece.