RUSH — Vapor Trails (review)

Album · 2002 · Hard Rock

5/5 · 2014-08-04
Unitron

Rush-Vapor Trails

After being on hiatus since 'Test for Echo', Rush came out with my favorite Rush album. Seeing as Peart lost his wife and daughter during Rush's hiatus, it makes sense that Vapor Trails is one of Rush's darkest albums. This is no light and uplifting album, this is a dark album where Peart unleashes his emotions very well in the lyrics.

This album signaled yet another new era of Rush, a much heavier style having the most metal moments since probably 'Hemispheres'. It is also the first Rush album to not have keyboard since 'Caress of Steel'. It's not all the same sound though, you get a nice variety with heavy driving riffs on tracks like 'One Little Victory' or melancholy ominous tracks like 'Ghost Rider'. The lyrics are among Rush's best in my opinion, with themes as 911('Peaceable Kingdom'), Death of Peart's wife and daughter('Ghost Rider'), and Change('Celing Unlimited').

The song structure is stronger, with the bridges of songs like 'Secret Touch' transitioning perfectly. Speaking of the bridge of 'Secret Touch', Lifeson gives some of his best riffs in a while driving throughout the bridge while Lee slaps the bass and Peart keeps a strong beat. We get to see another part of the 'Fear' saga as well, with 'Freeze' having some heavy riffs and lyrics about fight or flight. To close of the album there is a much lighter song, 'Out of the Cradle', to end the album off on a nice note.

Most of the songs on the album are dark and heavy, so if you're into Rush's darker and heavier stuff you will probably enjoy it. 'Peaceable Kingdom' and 'Earthshine' are my personal favorites.

A lot of people dislike the production, yet I honestly think it fits. The production is dark and raw matching the mood of the songs, and I think that is how it was supposed to be. Even if you don't like the production though, Rush recently re-mixed the album with a different production so more people can enjoy it I suppose.

Overall, I think Vapor Trails is Rush's first flawless album since 'Moving Pictures'. Even though it may not appeal to some, I think this is when Rush entered their best era. It's darker, heavier, and raw.

Hope you found this review helpful. _______________________________________________

I'm trying out a different kind of review then my normal track by track reviews, please tell me what you think and what type you think is better. :)

more than 2 years ago
Permalink
Report #296015

Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer

Please login to post a shout

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Thank you for all the feedback! I'm definitely sticking with this style, It looks like it makes it easier for both me and the reader :)

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

As I said there are exceptions where track by track reviews are helpful. In the case of Bumblefoot I´m that´s true because of the eclectic nature of his output. It should be said in this discussion that the below is of course just my personal opinion on what types of reviews I´d like to read. Reviewer on MMA are entitled to write reviews in exactly the style and structure they like to, as long as they follow the general review guidelines.

siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I find track by track reviews relevant for unknown albums. I did those for Bumblefoot simply because every track is so different and no one else had done reviews on them yet, otherwise i agree that overall impressions are more digestible

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I´ve written some track by track reviews in the past too, and shorter releases like EPs and singles sometimes warrant that type of review, but I almost always come up short, when I have to write about each and every track on an album, and worst of all I´m afraid it bores the reader. We´ve actually had a discussion on review construction a while ago here: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3640&title=review-etiquette-and-rationale. You might find that interesting.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Thank You, next time I will ask questions in the forum. I think I have an easier time writing these, so i'll stick with these :)

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

You should probably ask the question in the forum section instead of in a review, but since you do, I´ll answer and say that I personally like this type of review much better than track by track reviews, which I almost never read. I´m interested in an overall impression of an album, not a detailed track by track analysis.