Now we’re venturing into new territory. By the time this album was released I was a young father, living in a small flat, wages not quite covering the cost of living. Buying new music was out of the question, and new music releases fell off my radar completely. Therefore the next two studio albums totally passed my by, despite the large gap between them. I was far more focused on just trying to survive. They were tough times. I am far less familiar with the next three albums than I am with all the others having had to come back to them long after release. So even though I’d heard this album many times, I needed to give it another really good listen. Now, I thought I’d be saying that it is a fine piece of work but none of the songs on it are particularly memorable. I thought I’d be saying that, whilst a decent album, I consider it to be the weakest of the “fourth era” releases. As I listened this time however, I found myself really enjoying it, each song really hitting the spot. The title track is a real catchy number, followed by the brilliant Driven and the excellently written Half the World. I was really getting into it! Until, that is, I got to Dog Years. It really jarred. And I think I can accolade something to a Rush song that I hadn’t been able to award until now. The “Worst Rush Song Ever Written”. I really can’t get on with it! Thankfully, the rest of the songs are just as good as the first six which means that Test For Echo, despite Dog Years, has become my favourite fourth era Rush album. It features some of the best musicianship that the band had displayed thus far. Little did the trio know, however, that tragedy would be around the corner.

Test For Echo
Driven
Half The World
The Color Of Right
Time And Motion
Totem
Dog Years
Virtuality
Resist
Limbo
Carve Away The Stone

Alliance Crusader

The Alliance Crusader! Heaviest of the Alliance ships. Really enjoyed flying this one. She can even carry a fighter which, being rubbish at combat, is really useful for me to distract the enemy. Like the Chieftain she has six hardpoints so can deal out a similar amount of punishment too, if you can keep them trained on target for as long.

Mind you she handles better than her federal equivalent, the Gunship, so keeping those crosshairs in the same vicinity on screen as my targets was a bit easier. There aren’t many songs on Test for Echo that lend themselves to ship names so I’ve chosen Totem, which happens to be my favourite on the album.

Now, I’ve decided to go with canons this time around, although none of the experimental effects you get with canons really tickled my fancy so I included some multicanons on the smaller hardpoints to get the incendiary/corrosive effects I really enjoy using. I then used oversized munitions on all three canons, And boy, are they devastating! Enemy shields would get drained in just a few volleys followed by great chucks of hull vanishing every time I pulled the trigger.

There is a big drawback though. The ammo doesn’t last very long. I found myself having to break off from the attack and heading back to the station where I could re-stock. It was rather frustrating. Don’t think I’ll ever be using cannons on a build.

Alliance Challenger

The Alliance Challenger! Now, of all the Alliance ships this, for me, is the best looking, although only marginally more badass looking than the Chieftain. It also has seven hardpoints, so it should be able to deal out a lot more damage. I was really looking forward to piloting this ship!

I went with Limbo in the end, one of my favourite Rush instrumentals. Such a dearth of decent ship names on Test For Echo! She seemed to move quite nicely too, I couldn’t wait to get into battle with her!

Well, I went with seven multicannons for the Federal Gunship, so I decided to go with seven burst lasers for Limbo, and, while not quite as fun as using multicanons, they were all still pretty devastating. Some with the “phase sequence” experimental effect so I can damage hull through the shields and the large hardpoint with the “kinetic” effect so it can damage the hull more than it could otherwise once the shields had been stripped. Not needing ammo, I was hoping to stay out here for quite some time!

Although I could deal out punishment pretty effectively, I couldn’t soak it up particularly well. This is probably down to my skill as a pilot rather than any deficiency with the Challenger, but it wasn’t a problem I had with either of the other Alliance ships. Although I must admit I didn’t go head to head with a pair of Anacondas with either of those either! Probably should have put in at least one extra module reinforcement module as by the end of the session none of my burst lasers were functioning. All had been damaged by enemy fire. So an early retirement was the only option. Which was a pain.