Metal Reviews

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Nice review. I prefer Hemispheres, but there are some great moments here. I do have to admit that the band's (Peart in particular, as he's the lyricsist) fandom of Ayn Rand does occasionally make them hard to listen to, even though they don't generally use her ideas in their lyrics. Yet I listen to Burzum with a clear conscience...

Excellent review Zadok, not much to say about this album other that is indeed a CLASSIC.

This is accurate. This also would have been thier last album had it not been successful because the label threatened to pull thier distributorship and american deal for refusing to listen to thier artistic demands.



Not so accurate. Rush were touring around in a conversion van taking turns driving and were severely in debt until around 1980 and getting sick from bad food across the country.



Right wing? more like an anarchist. And Neil wrote this story before he had read anthem. A friend of his read the lyrics and told him was very close to anthem, so he acknowledged her story in the credits. Song "Anthem" is said to be inspired by other Rand work, but accordingly he never read that story until much later.



He was a drone being controlled by fascist theocracy that had no art and no beauty and no individuality who discovered that people could feel emotions because of the way the guitar made him feel with playing it.



That's how Neil Peart, writer, interprets it., so I guess i'll agree with him it isn't about where to get the best stir-fry beef.



Indeed.

People in general don't deserve to be given credit for enjoying tasteful music.



...Dumbasses




If you understood the references in the song, you'd see it was more about religion than politics - Spiritual vs. Carnal

Like Mintrude, Hemispheres is my Rush album. 2112 is indeed a classic though. That was a well written review so thanks for that.

Everyone on the forum is happier now that you've given the review some credibility, Adveser.

He is the quote master, don't touch him...

Pretty lame to post all those "corrections"

Yes, well, if you'd have quoted me properly you'd know that I went on to state some sales figures, and was referring to those rather than what the band drove about in whilst on tour. Also, the decision to make another long song paid off for the band, as in the previous sentence.



Not at all. Anarchism is generally associated with the extreme left of the political spectrum, and by saying things like white settlers are right to massacre natives merely because they're stronger, Rand's put herself pretty darn close to Fascism in my view. Anarchists, if you've ever talked to any, tend not hold Fascist views.



Yes, and it still sounds like Stalinist Russia to me. And it ties in exactly with my interpretation, so what your point was meant to add I'm not quite certain.



I wasn't referring to that song directly as much as the album as a whole, and tieing it in with the political elements, ie, pointing out that right-wingers are fond of emotions and feelings, and the album succeeds when looked at from that angle.

I'm really glad that you agree with me otherwise, though. So glad.

Sorry, I'm a die hard Rush fan.

It's rather interesting that Hemipsheres' title track talks about a balance of heart and mind. Perhaps it's talking about a centrist viewpoint?

This album is sexy.

Great review. Will check out...

>A clichéd interpretation of politics is that the Left speaks to the brain whilst the Right speaks to the heart
>right-wingers are fond of emotions and feelings

Uh, I think you've got that backwards. (So completely backwards that I actually started laughing.) Where in the world did you get that idea? No offense, but that's really bizarre. The Left has been the home of the whole touchy-feely thing, political correctness, and all that other emotionalism for many decades. (Hippies, anyone?) The Right is always being accused of being heartless and all that, not the Left. (Thus the saying that "If you're not a liberal when you're young you've got no heart, and if you're not a conservative when you're old you've got no brain.") Maybe so-called liberals (who are usually only liberal with their morals and other people's money) are prone to thinking in other countries, but emotion is king on the Left in the United States. American conservatism is a highly anti-emotional movement, which is why it can be so unpopular with kids as they go through the self-centered and hormone-driven years of puberty.

Wow. Right-wingers fond of emotion? That's an assertion I never, ever thought I'd hear. But like I said, the definition of "Right" and "Left" and "liberal" and "conservative" differ in each country. If it's applied to the U.S., it's absolutely ludicrous.

Part of the debate about the lyrics here seems to be based on the fallacy that communism and fascism are different. They're not. They're both forms of collectivism that are forced onto people, thus depriving them of their freedom. (Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany were simply two forms of the same thing.) Ayn Rand was against collectivism and every other form of slavery. So, if somebody is against Rand's political philosophy, it's natural to assume that he or she either 1) has no clue as to what Ayn Rand was talking about or 2) likes oppression. Personally, I prefer freedom, but to each his own.

Also, if you understand Rand's views, you'll find that they are much closer to libertarian philosophy than either liberalism or conservatism

When I made the references to politics in the review, I was mentioning it more because Rush is such a political band than anything else.

Still: it's a known fact that in America today those on the left are accused of 'intellectualism'. Look at Bush's to-the-heart speeches compared to the likes of Gore's more thought-out stuff. That isn't saying that Gore is left-wing, but it'll help you understand what I was getting at. It's hard to pin either 'wing' of politics down these days, but the left certainly seems to reach its 'touchy-feely' conclusions through reason, whereas the right tends to appeal to emotion. Yes, cue a flurry of examples where I'm wrong, but this is my opinion. We can quote outdated sayings at each other until we're blue in the face, it won't help either at the end.

At their end result, as seen through the governments that used them in the twentieth century, Communism and Fascism may well be very similar, but they aren't intended to be. Communism was about making every man equal, Fascism quite the opposite. That Stalin ended up being little different from Hitler doesn't mean that the ideologies were the same to start with.

And if Rand is not a fascist explain her remarks that I mentioned above, about the American Indians?



How does that make me "like oppression"? All very well saying that I have no clue what I'm on about, but that seems to me to be an emotional response rather than a reasoned one. I mean, who goes on about freedom all the time? Not the left! Ten points to me! Anyways, libertarian essays that I've read on, for example, how we should stop messing about and simply nuke Iran don't seem very leftwards to me. Quite the opposite.

I actually think I was quite balanced to the band's politics in the review, even going as far as to say why I enjoy the music despite my differing views, so why I'm being attacked for it now I'm not sure.

We're getting pretty deep here aren't we?

This is what happens when a secret society purposely creates a paradigm.

Seeing as how the 2004 elections were won as a reaction to gay marriage, I wouldn't say right-wing in the US has anything to do with the brain. Then again I also think that the US's idea of Liberal and Conservative is incredibly detached from what the terms actually mean


and neither was communism! funny how that works. I'm all for the oppression of the rich.


I'm against Rand's political philosophy because the government just steps back and lets rich assholes screw morons even harder than they do now.

Rand's basic ideas are in opposition to fascism but the selfishness she proposes creates the same awful side effects fascism mainly by ignoring weaker or misrepresented people or ideas.

Oh and if you consider communism equal to an authoritarian state umm yeah communism is not equal to what Stalin created.

I think it must be mentioned that Lenin's version of communism DID work. When he died it turned to shit.