FLY BY NIGHT

Fly By Night is the second in a long line of Rush albums and this is by no means a classic though has moments of greatness. Rush continued to play many of the tracks here live and they are bonafide fan favourites. Anthem became somewhat of an anthem for the band for years and of course the prog rock delicacies of By-Tor & The Snow Dog: I. At the Tobes of Hades; II. Across the Styx; III. Of the Battle; IV. Epilogue. This blockbuster prog track really summed up what the power trio were about in these early years. They took risks and damn the consequences with this infamous 8 minute sprawling 4 part epic duel of banshees, hell hounds and dogs on glacial landscapes. The lead break of Lifeson on this is phenomenal as is the insistent creative drumming of Peart, joining the band and adding just the right flavour to the mix. The band would remain in this lineup indefinitely having shed Rutsey who moved on to greener pastures, and perhaps regretted that for an eternity. The band were about to be launched into the stratosphere with upcoming albums, but hindsight is a wonderful thing in rock.

Fly by Night is the screechy title track with Geddy's high falsetto voice breaking glass. Throwaways such as Making Memories and Rivendell never do the album any favours, though it ends with a classic in the form of In the End. All in all an improvement from the debut but there was still a lot more left in the tank before Rush would break outside of Canada to becoming one of the greatest rock bands of the world.