blackleatherbookshelf | May. 8th, 2011

No one gets to their heaven without a fight
4 Out of 5 Stars

Rush hit a new peak with 2002's "Vapour Trails," an album where Neil Peart dealt with the loss of his wife and child, and the effects of 9/11with stomach kicking intensity. "Snakes and Arrows" is a slight step back from that forcefulness, but it is still an album that finds the band in the same form that "Trails" brought them back to. There is still a large chunk of Peart's lingering pain, but the band is playing at full throttle once more. After all, "Snakes and Arrows" is an album that contains three, yes three, instrumentals. Like the prog-rockers they always have been, Rush reminds everyone that they are virtuoso musicians. Who else in rock could carry an album that rocks this hard and hits so often without words?

Still, when the first words from Geddy Lee are "Pariah dogs and wandering madmen barking at strangers and speaking in tongues," you know you're back to the power that Rush started delivering around the time of "Permanent Waves." Lifeson has backed off the keyboards a bit, though, and his guitar is the mad mixture of acoustic picking (the instrumental "Hope") to the atmospheric power chording (on "Far Cry"), blistering solos ("Armour and Sword") and the loud blues thunder on the politically bent "The Way The Wind Blows." "Snakes and Ladders" was Rush's 18th studio album and it was recorded shortly after the band celebrated their 30th anniversary. With the powerful duo of releases that were "S&L" and "Vapour Trails," is astounding to see/hear how well they've matured.