FLY BY NIGHT

This album is the transitional album from Rush's prog related Led Zeppelin influenced sound to the classic progressive rock sound of the '70s. The band no longer just has some prog elements present on the album but now incorporates prog sounds into each song. This may have something to do with the addition of Neil Peart. He now takes up John Rutsey's place as drummer and is also instated as the lyricist. This album also the first Rush album to feature Terry Brown as producer (a job he kept until Signals).

But this is not 100% prog. Some songs still retain the hard rock sound that the last album was full of. Making Memories, Best I Can and Beneath, Between, and Behind come to mind right away. Other songs such as Anthem, Fly By Night, and Rivendell are more in the vein of prog related with the distinctive Geddy Lee bass present on most of these songs (except Rivendell which does not feature any bass guitar).By-Tor and the Snow Dog, a mini-epic song of sorts - broken down into 4 sections and mostly instrumental, is the main highlight of this album due to its prog nature and the fact that it shows true progression from hard rock to prog rock and is a fine piece of musicianship. Rivendell is a reference to J.R.R. Tolkien, one of two songs in the Rush catalog that do so (the other being on Caress of Steel - The Necromancer). Anthem is inspired by Ayn Rand (who also inspired 2112). I feel that some of these songs are better portrayed on the live album All The World's A Stage because of the energy put behind these songs in such a setting. Rush, I feel, is a band better heard live (or on a live recording).

All in all this is a highly enjoyable album, but it does have some weak songs on the album that can be seen as filler (Making Memories, Best I Can) because of the feeling these songs give off that does not seem to flow with the rest of the album. This album is a "debut" of the distinctive Rush sound. A good start has been made by this band and this is a strong release. 3/5 stars.