Albums/Ships (part 2)

The next four albums were to oversee a marked change in musical direction. There was a lot more focus on using synths and digital technology. Geddy would play keyboards live almost as much as he played his base, whilst using base pedals at the same time, Alex would use synth technology on his guitars and Neil would add an electric kit to the rear of his usual one. He would also go on to add triggers to his drums that could set off short musical samples, almost turning him into a full blown orchestra. This put off some of the fans, many of which would only consider the first eight albums to be the “proper” Rush releases. But many more would stick with the trio and the hoards of loyal fans still continued to grow.

The four then following those albums, from Presto onwards, saw the band make a return to the more guitar based prog rock with which they had deviated from with Signals and by the time they had released Test For Echo it was getting more like the second era than any other release since.