Rush – Snakes & Arrows (2007/2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Rush – Snakes & Arrows (2007/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:47 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino Atlantic

Snakes & Arrows is the nineteenth studio album, and the eighteenth of all-original material, by the Canadian rock band Rush. The album was recorded in five weeks between November and December 2006 at Allaire Studios in New York’s Catskill Mountains. It was their first studio outing since 2004’s Feedback, and their last studio album officially with Atlantic Records. The album was named as one of Classic Rock‘s 10 essential progressive rock albums of the decade.

When Rush issued Vapor Trails in 2002, they revealed that – even after Neil Peart’s personal tragedies in the 1990s had cast the group’s future in doubt – they were back with a vengeance. The sound was hard-hitting, direct, and extremely focused. Lyrically, Peart went right after the subject matter he was dealing with – and it was in the aftermath of 9/11 as well, which couldn’t help but influence his lyric writing. In 2004 the band issued a covers EP that was in one way a toss-off, but in another a riotous act of freewheeling joy that offered a side of the band no one had heard for 30 years. There were a couple of live offerings and a 30th anniversary project as well that kept fans happy perhaps, but broke – though Rush in Rio was the kind of live album every band hopes to record. Snakes & Arrows represents the band’s 18th studio album. Produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Velvet Revolver, Superdrag), the record is another heavy guitar, bass, and drums…drums…and more drums record. The title came – unconsciously according to Peart – from a centuries-old Buddhist game of the same name about karma, and also from a play on the words of the children’s game Chutes and Ladders. Its subject matter is heavy duty: faith and war. From the opening track (and first single), acoustic and electric guitars, bass hum, and Peart’s crash-and-thrum urgency in the almighty riff are all present. When Geddy Lee opens his mouth, you know you are in for a ride: “Pariah dogs and wandering madmen/Barking at strangers and speaking in tongues/The ebb and flow of tidal fortune/Electrical charges are charging up the young/It’s a far cry from the world we thought we’d inherit/It’s a far cry from the way we thought we’d share it….” At the same time, inside the frame of the refrain, Lee refuses to be conquered in the face of chaos: “One day I feel like I’m ahead of the wheel/And the next it’s rolling over me/I can get back on/I can get back on.” Alex Lifeson’s guitars swell and Peart’s crash cymbals ride the riff and push Lee to sing above the wailing fray. Great beginning.

Tracklist:
01. Rush – Far Cry (05:18)
02. Rush – Armor and Sword (06:36)
03. Rush – Workin’ Them Angels (04:46)
04. Rush – The Larger Bowl (04:04)
05. Rush – Spindrift (05:25)
06. Rush – The Main Monkey Business (Instrumental) (06:01)
07. Rush – The Way the Wind Blows (06:28)
08. Rush – Hope (Instrumental) (02:02)
09. Rush – Faithless (05:30)
10. Rush – Bravest Face (05:12)
11. Rush – Good News First (04:51)
12. Rush – Malignant Narcissism (Instrumental) (02:16)
13. Rush – We Hold On (04:12)

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