Rush's darkest album?

[Relayer2112]

Lyrically I would say 2112...Musically it would be Caress of Steel.

[Super25Smasher]

2112 album - Suicide, Drugs, Giant boys and guys with three eyes, and Tears.

 

Wow. I never thought about how dark 2112 was. I was gonna say Grace Under Pressure, but now i'm not so sure.

[Super25Smasher]

Caress of Steel has the beheadings, the baldness, the fading magic, the spectres numb with fear bowing defeated, and the discovery that the destination isn't as great as the journey.

 

Grace Under Pressure has the acid rain, anxiety, mourning, concentration camps, rage and roadkill.

 

Tough decision.

 

I'd go with Grace Under Pressure out of these two.

[grasbo]

Grace Under Pressure is all in minor keys.It has a tragic feel to it.For non musicians hum Greensleeves and you will hear the opening chords of Afterimage or Red SectorA.Alex pulls off some of his most gripping solos on this album.I remember reading that when he was laying down the solo to Afterimage he was almost in tears.He also wanted the solo in Red SectorA to feel sombre and he got nailed it.The synths are awash with ominous sounds and Pearts echoey electronic percussion.Musically an lyrically its cold and stark.I love it.And then we have the cover ,all awash with greys and blue.But if you want proof that its their most depressing album then look at the photo on the back cover and they have mistakenly used a photo of Ultravox or Spandau Ballet instead of Rush

[MMCXII]

Vapour Trails is definitely the darkest for me because I can feel what's behinds them lyrics

 

Caress is dark in a cute way I guess, hard to take it seriously when you realize that "Three travellers, men of Willowdale.." Are really just 3 kids from Toronto ..etc etc

[Super25Smasher]

Hemispheres has a divided universe, getting tricked by circumstances, trees getting cut down, and monsters.

[Drummerrobin]

Clockwork Angels I would say - to me it's a very dark and heavy album both sonically and lyrically. BU2B2 is possibly Rush's all time darkest moment. Edited May 9, 2015 by Drummerrobin

[RUSHHEAD666]

"Grace" for sure.

 

For some reason I also believe "Counterparts" is dark.

 

"Double Agent" comes to mind.

[bathory]

For Rush I would go with GUP. But as someone who regularly listens to heavy metal, even the lyrics on GUP aren't that dark to me.

 

not exactly dark but the themes are certainly HEAVY, in a way

[tangy]

Easily vapor trails.

 

Read the lyrics....

[RUSHHEAD666]

Easily vapor trails.

 

Read the lyrics....

 

Good point Tang.

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Grace Under Pressure for me.

[anima]

I vote Snakes and Arrows. It's the album I always play when everything seems dark.

 

At the moment it's near the bottom of my stack of Rush CDs which is probably a good sign!

[foghorn-leghorn]

Caress of Steel.

 

"The road is lined with peril, the air is charged with fear".

 

Beat that.!

[hem]

I have to go with Grace under pressure. There is an anxiety about everything on that album that is very unsettling. One of the most dangerous times of the cold war, and I can feel that in the lyrics and the brutally cold production. For me, Alex's guitar solo at the beginning of Between the Wheels sounds unhinged, bordering on insanity. The sadness in the solo proper is just breathtaking.

 

What a wonderful album it is.

[MusicHead]

I have to reassess my previous opinion. It's a tie between Snakes & Arrows and Vapor Trails for me. Neil sounds angry on these two, really livid lyrically.

[MusicHead]

I vote Snakes and Arrows. It's the album I always play when everything seems dark.

 

At the moment it's near the bottom of my stack of Rush CDs which is probably a good sign!

 

Exactly. I had trouble listening to it again this morning for precisely the same reason.

[New World Kid]

All these interpretations are just what i've come to think the songs mean, of course.

 

On a "macro" level, it's Grace Under Pressure. It's an album discussing the things that haunt the world, past and present.

 

The threat of nuclear war, and how other than the US and USSR at the time, the rest of the world was helpless and could only watch as their existence could be blinked out without even having a say. (Distant Early Warning)

 

Concentration camps, and the suffering within. (Red Sector A)

 

The future enslavement of AI, and how we will create sentient beings with wasted sentience. (The Body Electric)

 

The fear of communism, and the other problems that are perhaps ignored in our political landscape in favor of the message of "fear communism". (Red Lenses)

 

And the darker sides of collectivism spurring needless and costly war in the name of dogma. (Between the Wheels)

 

On a "micro" level, it's Vapor Trails.

 

The feeling of aloneness after tragedy. Mourning in solitude. Looking for hope while handling the weight of despair. (Ghost Rider)

 

The cruelness of random chance. A comparison of real-life events to an unfeeling, unthinking deck of tarot cards. Fate is a blunt, ambivalent instrument on all our lives. (Peaceable Kingdom)

 

The individual is insignificant and impotent in the face of fate, the future, and what tragedies are to come. Also, the bad things that are to come, have no meaning or higher purpose. They just happen. (The Stars Look Down)

 

Things are bad sometimes, and there's nothing you can do. It changes your current life perspective, and you have no control of your mood. (How It Is)

 

Death of a loved one is painful because, as time wears on, their presence in reality fades. They fall out of people's minds, and their effects on Earth are eroded. Losing a loved one is made doubly painful by how your own memory of them fades away day to day. As if a betrayal. (Vapor Trail)

 

Life is full of faint reminders or what is lost. You try to reach out to touch what you've lost, but it's not there. Ghosts all around you, unreachable, that can either inspire you or haunt you. (Earthshine)

 

In the split second of initial fear, we sometimes don't know what to do. Our minds haven't made up whether to give in to fight or flight. So we simply crumble until one solution works it's way to the surface. Descriptive imagery of the feeling of being in fear. (Freeze)

 

Pound-for-pound, I think Grace Under Pressure is darker. Vapor Trails has darker songs, but it also has songs that cancel out the darkness by saying that you can get up, over come these inner demons, and emerge victorious against your own inner battles.

 

Anything in the back catalog can conceptualize darkness into a story form, but I'm of the belief that it's darker to be talking from experience than supposition; reality from imagination.

 

I'm sure it would really suck to be drug into a blackhole, or commit suicide because I live in a society where guitars are banned. And that's dark. But it's not the same kind of personal, soul-destroying darkness as looking up in the sky and wondering if World War III is going to start today, or struggling to remember what your late-wife's voice actually sounded like.

 

But that's just like, my opinion man.

Edited May 12, 2015 by New World Kid

[RUSHHEAD666]

Caress of Steel.

 

"The road is lined with peril, the air is charged with fear".

 

Beat that.!

 

I actually agree!! "Caress" "Grace" "Counterparts" for me.

[RUSHHEAD666]

All these interpretations are just what i've come to think the songs mean, of course.

 

On a "macro" level, it's Grace Under Pressure. It's an album discussing the things that haunt the world, past and present.

 

The threat of nuclear war, and how other than the US and USSR at the time, the rest of the world was helpless and could only watch as their existence could be blinked out without even having a say. (Distant Early Warning)

 

Concentration camps, and the suffering within. (Red Sector A)

 

The future enslavement of AI, and how we will create sentient beings with wasted sentience. (The Body Electric)

 

The fear of communism, and the other problems that are perhaps ignored in our political landscape in favor of the message of "fear communism". (Red Lenses)

 

And the darker sides of collectivism spurring needless and costly war in the name of dogma. (Between the Wheels)

 

On a "micro" level, it's Vapor Trails.

 

The feeling of aloneness after tragedy. Mourning in solitude. Looking for hope while handling the weight of despair. (Ghost Rider)

 

The cruelness of random chance. A comparison of real-life events to an unfeeling, unthinking deck of tarot cards. Fate is a blunt, ambivalent instrument on all our lives. (Peaceable Kingdom)

 

The individual is insignificant and impotent in the face of fate, the future, and what tragedies are to come. (The Stars Look Down)

 

Things are bad sometimes, and there's nothing you can do. It changes your current life perspective, and you have no control of your mood. (How It Is)

 

Death of a loved one is painful because, as time wears on, their presence in reality fades. They fall out of people's minds, and their effects on Earth are eroded. Losing a loved one is made doubly painful by how your own memory of them fades away day to day. As if a betrayal. (Vapor Trail)

 

Life is full of faint reminders or what is lost. You try to reach out to touch what you've lost, but it's not there. Ghosts all around you, unreachable, that can either inspire you or haunt you. (Earthshine)

 

In the split second of initial fear, we sometimes don't know what to do. Our minds haven't made up whether to give in to fight or flight. So we simply crumble until one solution works it's way to the surface. Descriptive imagery of the feeling of being in fear. (Freeze)

 

Pound-for-pound, I think Grace Under Pressure is darker. Vapor Trails has darker songs, but it also has songs that cancel out the darkness by saying that you can get up, over come these inner demons, and emerge victorious against your own inner battles.

 

Anything in the back catalog can conceptualize darkness into a story form, but I'm of the belief that it's darker to be talking from experience than supposition; reality from imagination.

 

I'm sure it would really suck to be drug into a blackhole, or commit suicide because I live in a society where guitars are banned. And that's dark. But it's not the same kind of personal, soul-destroying darkness as looking up in the sky and wondering if World War III is going to start today, or struggling to remember what your late-wife's voice actually sounded like.

 

But that's just like, my opinion man.

 

I love your opinion.

[RUSHHEAD666]

I hate "Vapor Trails" but it truly is DARK!

[tangy]

All these interpretations are just what i've come to think the songs mean, of course.

 

On a "macro" level, it's Grace Under Pressure. It's an album discussing the things that haunt the world, past and present.

 

The threat of nuclear war, and how other than the US and USSR at the time, the rest of the world was helpless and could only watch as their existence could be blinked out without even having a say. (Distant Early Warning)

 

Concentration camps, and the suffering within. (Red Sector A)

 

The future enslavement of AI, and how we will create sentient beings with wasted sentience. (The Body Electric)

 

The fear of communism, and the other problems that are perhaps ignored in our political landscape in favor of the message of "fear communism". (Red Lenses)

 

And the darker sides of collectivism spurring needless and costly war in the name of dogma. (Between the Wheels)

 

On a "micro" level, it's Vapor Trails.

 

The feeling of aloneness after tragedy. Mourning in solitude. Looking for hope while handling the weight of despair. (Ghost Rider)

 

The cruelness of random chance. A comparison of real-life events to an unfeeling, unthinking deck of tarot cards. Fate is a blunt, ambivalent instrument on all our lives. (Peaceable Kingdom)

 

The individual is insignificant and impotent in the face of fate, the future, and what tragedies are to come. Also, the bad things that are to come, have no meaning or higher purpose. They just happen. (The Stars Look Down)

 

Things are bad sometimes, and there's nothing you can do. It changes your current life perspective, and you have no control of your mood. (How It Is)

 

Death of a loved one is painful because, as time wears on, their presence in reality fades. They fall out of people's minds, and their effects on Earth are eroded. Losing a loved one is made doubly painful by how your own memory of them fades away day to day. As if a betrayal. (Vapor Trail)

 

Life is full of faint reminders or what is lost. You try to reach out to touch what you've lost, but it's not there. Ghosts all around you, unreachable, that can either inspire you or haunt you. (Earthshine)

 

In the split second of initial fear, we sometimes don't know what to do. Our minds haven't made up whether to give in to fight or flight. So we simply crumble until one solution works it's way to the surface. Descriptive imagery of the feeling of being in fear. (Freeze)

 

Pound-for-pound, I think Grace Under Pressure is darker. Vapor Trails has darker songs, but it also has songs that cancel out the darkness by saying that you can get up, over come these inner demons, and emerge victorious against your own inner battles.

 

Anything in the back catalog can conceptualize darkness into a story form, but I'm of the belief that it's darker to be talking from experience than supposition; reality from imagination.

 

I'm sure it would really suck to be drug into a blackhole, or commit suicide because I live in a society where guitars are banned. And that's dark. But it's not the same kind of personal, soul-destroying darkness as looking up in the sky and wondering if World War III is going to start today, or struggling to remember what your late-wife's voice actually sounded like.

 

But that's just like, my opinion man.

 

Great post

 

I will add that afterimage was wwrtten for a friend that worked with them prior to his death. I think that sorrow also spills into between the wheels.

 

You probably know that neil lost both his wife and daughter prior to vt.

 

So yeah two dark records.

 

 

 

[Del_Duio]

Normally I would have said GUP but the production is kind of too thin.

So I'll go with CoS.

[Tick]

Snakes And Arrows for sure, imo. Very real dark perspective as apposed to fictional darkness. Neil paints a bleak picture

[analog guy]

P/G, Vapor Trails, Snakes & Arrows - hard to separate them, but they all qualify IMO.

 

P/G as a general bleak worldview... the heaviness.

 

Vapor Trails is obviously got the hand of Neil's personal grief all over it.

 

Snakes & Arrows is probably the most caustic album in Rush's catalog.