SNAKES & ARROWS

Yet another disappointing CD from Rush to complete a trifecta of bad CDs - Test for Echoes, Vapor Trails and now Snakes and Arrows. I've been a Rush fan for a while; I really liked Power Windows, Hold Your Fire, Permanent Waves, 2112 and Moving Pictures. And I thought that several songs off of Grace Under Pressure, Signals, Presto, Roll The Bones and Counterparts were very good.

It's not that hard to see why this CD represents a continuing decline of Rush. They lost their prog ambitions a long time ago and have now regressed to tired old power chords, no keyboards and poor solos. I've listened to Snakes and Arrows - the entire CD - about ten times now and most of the songs don't stick. So far, "Far Cry", "The Larger Bowl", "The Main Monkey Business" and "Malignant Narcissism" have stood out from the rest but that could change. While the two instrumentals - "Monkey" and "Narcissism" are reasonably good, they don't hold a candle to "La Villa Strangiato" or "YYZ". If you're into prog, there's no good reason to listen to Rush any more. Makes more sense to get into Porcupine Tree, Tool, or even mathcore/metalcore bands like Dillinger Escape Plan.

Neil Peart's lyrics on Snakes and Arrows are mainly about religion. Unlike Power Windows which was about power and tried to strive for a balanced perspective, Snakes and Arrows seems quite one sided in its distaste for religion. Considering that religion and spirituality are joined at the hip, Snakes and Arrows could have used some offsetting songs similar to Mystic Rhythms (off of Power Windows), Mission or Tai Shan (from Hold Your Fire). It was kinda cool to see the Hindu game of Leela on the cover - since I used to play Paramapadam (Snakes and Ladders) as a kid - but there's no accompanying spiritual/philosophical insight in Neil's lyrics. More's the pity.