It actually is a complete coincidence that I did this as #112. Maybe I'll do the self-titled 311 when the time comes though. Anyway, this album was finding its way onto some prog lists I'd been looking at.
So I actually like Rush. Moving Pictures is a classic, and what else I've heard of the era is at least decent. That said, this is not so good. I'm going to (mostly) resist the urge to go on a long screed about what prog is and isn't, but lets lay it out this way: this album has an side-length song and preposterous lyrics; if those things make you prog, then you've only really picked up the worst parts of prog to hitch yourself to. There's no actual adventurousness in the song structure (the title track sounds like an album side with the track breaks plucked out) and there's nothing in the rhythms, chord structures and instrumentation that wouldn't be better described as "metal".
So, fine, it's a metal album, or maybe a "hard rock" album, where does that leave it? Decent, I guess? The drums and guitar solos are good, if not exactly what I'm into, but the real problem is I just can't get past Geddy Lee's shrieking when the context is this pretentious. It lacks the tightness and energy of their later stuff, and doesn't pull off the things that an album needs to to make me put up with these kind of excesses 2/5
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