Rush - Caress of Steel
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CD Details
Artist: RushEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1997-05-06
Music Label: Island / Mercury
Soundtracks:
- Bastille Day
- I Think I'm Going Bald
- Lakeside Park
- The Necromancer: I. Into The Darkness/II. Under The Shadows/III. Return Of Prince
- The Fountain Of Lamneth: I. In The Valley/II. Didacts And Narpets/III. No One At The Bridge/...
Music reviews of Caress of Steel
Music Review: Rush - Caress Of Steel: The Progressive Rock Experiment Continues!
Rating: 5 Stars
Canadian power-trio Rush first started as a heavy blues-rock group with their self-titled 1974 debut but as soon as they recruited drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, the approach began to slightly change towards a more progressive rock inspired sound as parts of their sophomore release "Fly By Night" (early 1975) demonstrated. Later in that year their third offering "Caress Of Steel" was released. With the line-up of Geddy Lee (bass), Alex Lifeson (guitar), and Neil Peart (drums) firmly established, the band decided to experiment more prominently with progressive rock this time expanding the idea first tried on the eight-minute multi-part epic "By-tor And The Snow Dog" but still putting emphasis on guitar instead of the usual keyboards more commonly associated with the genre.
The two progressive rock inspired epics are saved for last with "Bastille Day" being responsible for launching the LP in pure hard rock fashion. Peart's lyrics were inspired by the French Revolution incident of the Bastille prison. It starts with a simple single note fast riff on the guitar in the key of A but before long, Lifeson's thick chords appear with Lee singing on top. The chorus is cool and has an anthemic feel however, for me, the highlight of the song is the great mixolydian solo that Lifeson plays in the middle right after that eerie sounding instrumental bridge with the slower tempo, and the harmonized outro solo at the end that gives off a Queen-Brian May vibe making for an epic finale. Next comes "I Think I'm Going Bald" that showcases the blues-rock sound from the debut and the lyrics talk about getting old. Probably the low point of the album but the riffs are cool and Lifeson delivers a mean bluesy solo! "Lakeside Park" is an early masterpiece from the band effectively using the light/heavy approach with a rocking verse and a mellow chorus. Peart worte some lyrics that talk about some of his childhood memories. There's a nice arpeggio at the song's outro bridge and the solo is nice but sounds a little better on the live recording "All The World's A Stage".
Now we get to the album's main extended pieces. The first of these is "The Necromancer" (total running time 12:29). Drummer Neil Peart himself is the narrator heard throughout the recording and the composition is split up in three parts. The lyrics were partly inspired by writer J.R.R. Tolkien. Beginning at 0:28, Peart introduces us via his narration to the main characters of the story: three travelers from Willow Dale emerge from the forest at dawn. They are heading into the forbidden land of the necromancer. Part I - "Into The Darkness" features some strange guitar sound effects over an atmospheric arpeggio that repeats several times giving off a somewhat similar feel to Robin Trower's song "Bridge Of Sighs" with Lee singing in a softly manner and concluding with a moody solo by Lifeson. At about 3:49 Peart continues with the narration. The skies are getting dark, the necromancer is aware of the three travelers who are now trapped in his spell. Part II - "Under The Shadow" begins with a stop/start riff played in unison by the three members with Lee's vocal delivery becoming more frantic. Before long Lifeson starts playing a mean solo with a lot of string overbends while Peart keeps the beat and Lee continues playing the riff on the bass. The solo goes on for quite a while until Alex himself switches from lead guitar to the main riff until finishing off with a chord that's left to ring out. A strange sound effect is heard signaling the beginning of a fast-paced section (not yet the third part) that provides Lifeson for room to play the meanest soloing/riffing on the album using the wah wah pedal! It all comes to an abrupt end and quickly a bright sounding arpeggio signals the beginning of the epic's last section: Part III - "Return Of The Prince". At about 9:01 Peart announces the arrival of a new character who comes to save the day: the champion By-tor! He is not longer the bad guy I guess! The necromancer's spell is now broken and the dark lands are now bright! Musically, this last section has a pop feel and it resembles Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane", especially the version that Mott The Hoople recorded in 1972. Lee sings more melodically and Lifeson adds a more distorted guitar overdub towards the end as well as a nice melodic solo that concludes with a mixolydian scale right before the fade out. Well...that's it! My thoughts: I wish it had a more worked out ending instead of the fade out and Peart's narration, for some reason was recorded quite low so you have to turn the volume up quite a bit to hear him clearly but still it's an excellent early epic from the band!
Now it's time to go into the album's longest and final epic titled "The Fountain Of Lamneth" and split into six movements that last for one up to four minutes. Lyrically it deals about somebody who embarks on a journey to find the fountain of Lamneth. The starting point is I - "In The Valley" with Lee singing softly over a melodic chord/arpeggio progression on the acoustic guitar that soon changes to an ascending note patter with an anthemic feel on the electric guitar that signals the stat of the main body of this movement that alternates between a rocking verse and a quiet chorus. At about 4:15 it's over and II - "Didacts & Narpets" begins and it consists of a drum solo with a few staccato chords and Lee yelling words like 'stay!', 'work'!, 'earn'! and it concludes with Lee shouting 'LISTEN'!! Now it's time for III - "No One At The Bridge" that runs for about four minutes. This one is more progressive sounding with a slower tempo, dark sounding arpeggios and a nice chorus with the chord progression of A C and F. Lee screams at the top of his lungs during a dramatic bridge and before this movement finishes, Lifeson plays an excellent solo. The next piece IV - "Panacea" is a very relaxing one written by Lee on his own that consists mostly of Lifeson playing classical acoustic guitar while Lee gives probably his best vocal performance on the album. There's a faint electric guitar overdub too that provides some nice atmospherics. After about three minutes it's over and the next movement V - "Bacchus Plateau", also running for about three minutes begins. This pop sounding composition is definitely a highlight that puts Alex's melodic electric guitar playing on the front and bringing back the anthemic feel. Great singing/bass playing from Lee and right before the end you'll come across Lifeson's most melodic solo on the whole album so enjoy it! Too bad it fades out! The last section VI - "The Fountain" reprises the music from the first movement giving the whole set a circular structure but with different lyrics and this time, there's a guitar solo over this chord progression. An adequate exit but it could have been much better if they would have used new music instead! Still it's an excellent epic! The only negative aspect is the fact that the compositions don't run into one another having about three to four seconds of silence in between but the cool music throughout makes up for it! This is a flaw that the band corrected on their follow up album "2112".
To sum up, this third album from Rush gets overlooked and eclipsed by the more successful follow up "2112" but it's still a cool album that effectively showcases the band's early sound but with a touch of progressive rock.
Thanks for taking the time to read!
Later...
Description of Caress of Steel
Japanese only paper sleeve SHM pressing. The SHM-CD [Super High Material CD] format features enhanced audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic. Using a process developed by JVC and Universal Music Japan discovered through the joint companies' research into LCD display manufacturing SHM-CDs feature improved transparency on the data side of the disc allowing for more accurate reading of CD data by the CD player laser head. SHM-CD format CDs are fully compatible with standard CD players. Warner. 2009.Classic Rock CDs
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