I´d even go as far as to say that the most hard edged and aggressive moments on the album feature heavy metal leanings. Sure that has always been a part of the band´s sound, also on subsequent releases, but this is the last album by Rush to feature the primal aggression of their early material. One of the things which makes "2112" stand out compared to the next couple of releases by the band, is that it still features quite a lot of hard rocking riffs, rhythms, and vocals. "2112" is in many ways an impressive release, and it´s obvious why it´s often mentioned among the highlights of the band´s discography. It´s powerful, warm, and organic, and especially the drums feature a great sound. "2112" is a very well produced album too, and the sound production is a great asset to the album. Their instrumental superiority, Geddy Lee´s incredible vocal range, Neil Peart´s adventurous lyrics (in this case set in a future sci-fi universe), and their songwriting skills. The real attraction here is the title track though, which displays a lot of different sides of Rush. None of them are overtly complex in structure, but they still feature a progressive edge, which makes them quite intriguing. The "regular" length tracks vary in style from hard progressive rockers, to more mellow progressive rock tracks. The album features one 20:33 minutes long progressive epic (the title track) and five shorter tracks. Stylistically "2112" is more or less the natural successor to "Caress of Steel (1975)". Had they not succeeded with "2112", who knows what the label would have done with them? In retrospect that was of course a great idea, but back then it was a major gamble, where they fortunately ended up collecting the reward. But Rush chose to ignore the advice and continued to write more progressive inclined material. They were actually asked by their label to write more mainstream material after the commercial failure of "Caress of Steel (1975)", which sold less than "Fly by Night (1975)" had done. "2112" was Rush first major commercial success. The album was released through Mercury Records in April 1976 (and through Anthem Records in Canada). The great thing was that we had a chance to rehearse it during soundchecks, so we were well prepared by the time we got into the studio."2112" is the 4th full-length studio album by Canadian progressive rock act Rush. “We were touring so much that we wrote it mostly in arena dressing rooms, and in the car and the van. There was a lot of passion in that record, a lot of ferocity and it cut through the static of the music that was out there and it reached people.” – Alex Lifeson Alex and I knew what we wanted to write even before we saw the lyrics, the overblown intro, the pacing, the movements… And then Neil had written these lyrics and it was almost magical how well they worked. “The album just flowed one song came out of the other. “Forty years ago today, on April 1, 1976, Rush released 2112. Rolling Stone initially hosted the release exclusively, however the entire suite, became available on the Rush website – 21 hours and 12 minutes from the time of the post. Rush marked the 40th anniversary of the release of their prog-epic 2112 with a “comic-book” style video version of 2112: Overture/The Temples Of Syrinx/Discovery/Presentation/Oracle: The Dream/Soliloquy/Grand Finale.