Is Rush really a Prog band ?

 

Rush are probably the classic example of what I was getting at when trying to decipher the difference (if there is one) between "Prog" and "Progressive".

 

There can be no doubt that they played progressive music.

 

But it's not the same kind of Progressive music as (early) Genesis, ELP, King Crimson, Gentle Giant et al - one could say it's in a different league, without insinuating that one is necessarily better than the other.

 

The early albums were primarily Hard Rock in the same vein as Led Zeppelin - with similar "progressive" tendencies, but nothing overall to suggest a "full-blown" Prog band.

 

The later albums were varied, and, while they contained a lot of attributes that we could consider "Prog", this whole approach of identifying the music by attributes is skewed - and we can probably blame Rush for this!

 

Back in the 1970s (I was "there" too!), we called Rush Progressive Metal. Others didn't, but my immediate circle did - so you kind of got the feeling that "everyone" did - and this kind of phenomenon is very common.

 

Progressive Metal is a good label for them - the music has a kind of metal core in its hard rock approach - riffs which are often more complex than you'd expect, longer acoustic passages, and elongated song structures, particularly in the instrumentals.

 

But it's a different overall approach to composition to early Genesis et al - so I'd say that Rush are NOT a Prog band, rather an early Progressive Metal band who sometimes ventured into Prog territory.

 

 

/dons flame-retardent suit

 

 

 

On this one aspect, it seems to me that Metallica explored riffs to a greater extent, using riff inversions and fragments to produce something unlike anything else in metal at the time - but quite similar to King Crimson's approach, where Crimson wrote riff-based music - and I've yet to hear a metal band that successfully merges this into the genre outside of a purely technical approach, so Metallica remain unique in what they produced before their self-titled album.

Dream Theater are the reining champions of prog metal. Other bands in that genre (or sub genre) would include Mind Key, Pagan's Mind, and possibly Trivium.

Rush are more of a melodic prog band, or some people call it neo prog, because it has progressive moments with AOR influences.

To call Rush a metal band -- or prog metal -- would be way out of touch with the evolution of hard rock and metal over the past 25 years. Prog metal has shredders ripping up technical solos -- Alex is fantastic but he's not a shredder.

As for my background making these statements (to put it in perspective), I'm the guitar player in the melodic progressive rock band, Days Before Tomorrow, and we share far more in common with Rush and Marillion than with King Crimson. I also work in the music biz by day as the editor in chief of the online magazine MusicPlayers.com, where we talk regularly with members of these various bands.

Just my humble opinion, of course :-).

Scott

http://www.myspace.com/daysbeforetomorrow (my band)

http://www.musicplayers.com (my day job)

 

That gives me an idea for another thread to research - thanks!

 

(You're right - keyboards were considered a very "non-metal" thing back then, but that didn't stop bands using them - didn't Priest use them on some tracks? Then there was Rick Wakeman's famous outing on "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", Blue Oyster Cult... I'll get on with the research)

 

 

 

...and no, they weren't Metal either.

 

 

 

 

...or Prog.