Rush
Counterparts

THE REVIEW

The 90s for Rush started with an album, "Roll the bones", which didn’t foreshadow the group’s "metallic" turn; only in the meantime, American and other tastes had changed. Suddenly, the "grunge" wave submerged the "traditional" heavy metal and Adult Oriented Rock in the style of Journey or similar is now just a memory.

With "Counterparts", Rush decided to put aside the synthesizers (present, yes, but almost imperceptibly in a couple of tracks) and give ample space to Lifeson's guitar, never so sharp, not even in the days of "Anthem" or "The temple of Syrinx". This does not mean that Rush have lost their essence; on the contrary, they still manage to be very recognizable, and we are certainly not facing a band that raises the volume on the amplifiers to mask a lack of creativity.

The album is very varied in rhythms; however, the harshness of the sound remains constant, just listen to "Stick it out", "Double agent" (beautiful, in my opinion) or "Cut to the chase" to understand the vibe. There is also the electro-acoustic melody of "Nobody's hero", enriched by the orchestra's strings and an excellent (as usual) text, and lighter tracks like "Everyday glory" or "Cold fire", solved with the usual class. Also great is the instrumental "Leave that thing alone" which alternates a funk rhythm with powerful riffs and guitar solos.

Overall, I consider it an excellent work, in which Rush proved to keep up with the times without compromising themselves. Slightly different story with the subsequent studio albums, but I will talk about them in other reviews, if someone else Derecensore doesn’t beat me to it...