Rush - Caress of Steel CD (album) cover




Heavy Prog

3.53 | 895 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Special Collaborator
Italian Prog Specialist
2 stars 2.5/5 to be honest

I find this album very hard to review. At the same time that I desperately want to play out my fanboy-ism for this album, it seems like highly unfair for all the readers at PA.

Fly by Night is much better than Caress of Steel is the first thought that pops up in my mind. Obviously, most of the previous reviewers disagree with that statement. Let me explain why they are wrong :).

Caress of Steel is where Rush made too much, too fast. I personally don't find neither the Necromancer nor The Fountain of Lamneth thoroughly enjoyable. Sure, they do fulfill the prog requirements, but I still don't think they are good prog. Both songs have some magnificent parts in them, with The Fountain of Lamneth being the best of the two in my opinion, but they fail in coherence. The connections between the different parts leave me feeling lost. It's like a collection of many parts cut out of many different songs, only loosely connected. And that's why I often find myself playing this album as background music, while studying or being involved with some other activity.

Bastille Day, I Think I'm Going Bald and Lakeside Park also feels strangely out of place alongside the epics. They're all fun rock songs (especially I Think I'm Going Bald!), but I'd want them on...perhaps their debut album? This isn't a good follow-up to Fly by Night, which has it's natural follow-up in the excellent 2112.

As stated earlier: too much, too fast and some misplaced good ol' rockin thrown in for good measure!


LinusW | 2/5 |




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