Caress of Steel (1975)
It's time to get progressive. After messing around with prog rock on “By-Tor and the Snow Dog” on their last album with positive results, they decide to go all out with “Caress of Steel”. Their hard rock stylings are still in full swing, but are slowly molding their own distinctive style (in other words, they have vastly improved over their debut). They also decide to ease the listener into the progressive side of things since the first 3 songs are your typical tried and true hard rock songs. These songs are not as strong as some found on “Fly By Night”, but are catchy in their own right. Honestly, they could have fit perfectly on that album. “Bastille Day” opens the album similarly to the way “Anthem” opened the last, “I Think I'm Going Bald” has a kind of ultra cheesy theme but still works in a weird way, and “Lakeside Park” has some pretty nice guitar work. Alas, those were just to warm you up for the next two epics “The Necromancer” and “The Fountain of Lamneth”.
Now, Rush has always been good at pop structured songs, and after a while return to that formula. However, I feel their prog epics have always been their most interesting work. If you were to look at the critical reception for “Caress of Steel”, you will find it was not received well. This was meant to be Rush's breakout album, but having turned their backs on straight ahead rock, a lot of their fans (and critics) didn't know what to think. Rush's supporting tour was subsequently referred to as the “Down the Tubes” tour. In this reviewer's humble opinion, however, this album could easily be held up with the finest of their prog albums.
Let's take a look at these two epic beauties. I'll refrain from going into their stories as half the fun is listening to the lyrics and figuring out what is going on by yourself. “The Necromancer” starts off very slow with some trippy guitar and spoken word vocals in the background. This segment is called “Into the Darkness” and it definitely sets a tone that Rush had yet to hit upon until this time. About a third of the way through, it kicks into high gear and rocks your face off with “Under the Shadow”. Then they switch gears again with “Return of the Prince”. This segment is still all about the rock, but changes the tone. All three parts are totally different, yet work together really well. The song never gets boring, in my opinion. This is one of their finest epic songs.
Then we get an even longer epic, “The Fountain Lamneth”. The first segment, “In the Valley” is really good. There is wonderful juxtaposition between heavy and soft. The next segment “Didacts and Narpets” is basically just an excuse to show off what Neil can do on the drums. He definitely knows his stuff, but it seems a little forced and is really the only weak part of the song. Luckily, it's only a minute before we get “No One At the Bridge”. It is another brilliant segment with some gentle appregiated chords from Alex. “Panacea” is an acoustic segment, but this is the point of the song where I start to feel that this is just bunch of different songs stuck together. It is pretty good, but points out one of my complaints with Rush's early progressive work. One segment would end, the next would begin with no real transition between. But hey, the music is good and they were learning. “Bacchus Plateau” picks up with the hard rock again and “The Fountain” revisits the theme of “In the Valley” to close out the song. Overall, a good song and definitely hints to their breakout epic “2112”, but due to the problems I mentioned, I prefer “The Necromancer”.
With each album Rush is slowly progressing to a style all their own. This album may have shocked current fans with their decision to go progressive, but that should not be a reason to ignore it. This is another album to visit after you are familiar with some of their other work, but it is a worthy addition to anyone's collection. This one gets a
7.5/10.