Hukos

I've heard black metal albums that had better mixing than Vapor Trails. As for why I dislike it so much? I just don't think the songwriting is very good. Even on the remix, it can't hide the fact that most of the songs are just rather dull and boring. The production values do not help at all. Yes, the return to the heavy style that Rush was previously known for was nice, but at the end of the day bad songs are still bad songs.

The Big Money - 8 Grand Designs - 7 Manhatten Project - 7 Marathon - 10 Territories - 10 Middletown Dreams - 9 Emotion Detector - 8 Mystic Rhythms - 10 I think the run from Marathon to Mystic Rythms might be the strongest streak of songs in Rush's whole discography. My 3rd favorite Rush album, only behind Farewell to Kings and Grace Under Pressure. If it weren't for Hemispheres (the song), Mystic Rhythms would be my all-time favorite Rush composition. The entire 2nd half of that song is perfection. Absolutely fantastic record.

Subdivisions - 10 The Analog Kid - 6 Chemistry - 5 Digital Man - 8 The Weapon - 8 New World Man - 4 Losing It - 10 Countdown - 7 To me, Signals is a very uneven album. When its great, its fantastic but it also has too many clunkers for me to consider it a classic album. Surely, Subdivisions and Losing It are two of the best songs that Rush has ever recorded in their history. But I also can't stand the likes of New World Man or Chemistry either. Its still the weakest synth era album, but enjoyable enough on its own.

I think Signals is merely okay. I don't think it was the end like others do, but I don't think Signals is that great either and it definitely has it's problems. If there's an album that very well may spell the deathknell for Rush, it's Clockwork Angels! I don't think the record is bad at all, but I find it kind of mediocre (The production in general I find extremely irritating) and given the massive praise it gets, I fear the trio may think that something of CA's quality is "good enough" for the next and potentially final record. That would be "the end" of Rush for me.

I don't think T4E is really all that bad. Driven is a masterpiece, Resist is awesome and Time & Motion is a really good listen. There's a few other pretty good songs littered about. I don't see how anyone can say that it's worse than Vapor Trails (I can only think of maybe 2 songs on VT I like, by the far the fewest of any Rush album), the S/t or FBN. It's not amazing, but I'd argue it's better than some of the albums people praise over it.

Eh, I think Entre Nous is mediocre and I'm not all that fond of Different Strings.

I want your copy (the one without Red Lenses). That's a funny way of spelling Kid Gloves.

From where I stand, them's fighting words.

It's alright. Subdivisions, Digital Man, The Weapon and Losing It are killer songs that I'd easily say are some of the band's best output. However, Analog Kid is dull, Chemistry is all over the place, I've never liked New World Man and Countdown always stroke me as filler material. So it evens out as being above average. I still think it's the worst synth album though.

I was quite please with their last effort. What other band has produced a record of that quality, this late in their carreers? The answer? No one. If they have another album in them, if it come anywhere close to the quality of Clockwork Angels, I'll be ecstatic! :banana: I'd say The Final Frontier by Iron Maiden is better than CA. It's a real grower album, it doesn't really click well at first but I find it's really fantastic whenever I go back to it. Add in the fact that I don't think Clockwork Angels was really that good. It's merely "okay". You can argue that doesn't count since TFF is only Maiden's 15th album whereas CA is Rush's 19th, but at this point I think you'd be playing semantics. As for the topic, Counterparts is honestly very much like CA in terms of how I think of it. It's certainly not bad but I'd still have to put it in the lower half of Rush albums. Though I do love me some Cold Fire. Oh and I'm also in the "Roll the Bones is awesome" camp.

Eh, I'm in the camp that's never "gotten" Gates of Delirium. It's a pretty good song and all, but it's one of those songs where I only really like certain sections of it instead of the whole thing. Now, the mid-section when it gets all quiet and then Jon starts singing and things get kicked up a notch? That always gets me.

Controversial opinion time here. Awaken > Close to the Edge.

Fly From Here certainly wasn't on the level of the run of TYA-GFTO, but I'd still take it over dredge like Tormato, Union or Open Your Eyes. FFH is essentially Drama 2. And I really, really like Drama despite not having Jon in it. Machine Messiah and Tempus Fugit are two of Yes' best songs as far as I'm concerned. What makes me excite for the new album is that we're going to have some new blood in regards to songwriting. A fresh voice! I don't expect Yes to reinvent the wheel here but I do somewhat expect this album to take a different tone than FFH (otherwise we'd just have Drama 3).

There's legitimately good Death Metal and there's people who put zero thought into it and get away with it because Satan and all. Unfortunately, very few people are familiar with the former and much more familiar with the latter. Your average garage level death metal band has NOTHING on the likes of Atheist or Morbid Angel. Same with other subgenres. It just seems like most people know about the shit and aren't familiar with the stuff that makes them worthwhile. And while we're on the subject of Celtic Frost, they're the golden standard for weird and experimental metal without actually losing their "punch". They still sound like a metal band even when they're doing some of the most crazy ass things imaginable. And that's why I love 'em.

The 80's gave us Doom Metal. That's enough for me to make it my favorite musical decade.

1. A Farewell to Kings 2. Grace Under Pressure 3. Power Windows 4. Hemispheres 5. Moving Pictures 6. Roll the Bones 7. Hold Your Fire 8. 2112 9. Snakes & Arrows 10. Signals 11. Permanent Waves 12. Presto 13. Caress of Steel 14. Counterparts 15. Clockwork Angels 16. Test for Echo 17. Vapor Trails 18. Fly By Night 19. Rush

They're definitely up there but there's a ton of rock bands that go unnoticed that were easily just as "intelligent" as Rush is/was.

I say it the American way but I don't have a problem with the Canadian pronunciation.

Really, as far as I'm concerned this is the quintessential Rush lyric.

Think man, think.. I could have picked at least 8-10 Rush and Yes albums alone but I only get one.... :sigh: Well I was just making a point of how hard it is to pick 10 when you have so many cherished albums to choose from!

If you asked me to pick 100 albums, I'd struggle with this. Hell, I'm not sure I could list a top 500. Now before you freak out at that, consider this. My favorite bands tend to have a "golden era" of 4-6 albums (this is including live albums/rare demos/EPs/etc.) each that I couldn't live without, and with a wide breath of fantastic bands I like, that adds up to quite a large number of albums, making a large number of favorite albums not all that unfeasible. Some bands are consistent enough that I'm not sure I could live without their whole discography (Candlemass, Bathory, Primordial, Cocteau Twins, etc.)

At first I thought this topic was going to be about something along the lines of "Hemispheres is ranked too highly among Rush fans". And then I was gonna rage. But fortunately that's not the case!

Some extreme forms of music such as Black Metal I suppose. Not because I think it's a guilty pleasure or that it's actually embarrassing, but actually explaining what makes the genre endearing to me is quite difficult for the average person to comprehend. The harshness is just too much for a lot of people to overcome. Also bands that feature musicians who are generally awful people but make great music. A lot of people have a hard time separating an artist's moral character from their musical accomplishments, so explaining why I like Burzum without a lot of awkwardness is kind if hard (For those unfamiliar, the man behind Burzum murdered a man and burnt down a couple of churches). I have no problem differentiating the two, but that seems to be a skill that's hard for a lot of people to come by and for that reason, I prefer to not mention that I like those kinds of bands.

:o wha wha what? That and "Unleashed In The East" by Judas Priest are my 2 favorite live albums ever. Get On It! I'm of the opinion that anyone who doesn't have "Unleashed in the East" as their favorite live album simply hasn't heard it yet.

Marathon La Villa Natural Science (I never hear anyone praise this solo) YYZ Lock and Key (Another one I never hear mentioned much) Ghost of a Chance 2112 - Overture Hemispheres - Cygnus Way too many other notable examples are being left out of course, but Alex has plenty of great moments.