Canada Metal & Hard Rock Albums of the 1980s

Alice in Hell is a thrash-metal debut built around Jeff Waters’s razor-sharp riffs and unpredictable turns.

Presto finds Rush turning away from display for its own sake and toward lighter arrangements and clear melodic lines.

Hold Your Fire brings together the synthesizer color Rush refined in the 1980s and the dense precision of its three players.

Power Windows keeps Rush’s guitar-rock foundation while expanding its use of keyboards and electronic texture.

Grace Under Pressure increases Rush’s use of synthesizers while sharpening the precision of its three-player ensemble.

Signals brings more synthesizer color and electronic texture into Rush’s precise rock foundation.

Moving Pictures compresses Rush’s intricate musicianship into shorter, clearer songs.

Permanent Waves channels the technical confidence Rush built through its 1970s epics into shorter, more open songs.