10 Hard Rock Music Bands That Avoided The Sophomore Slump

10. Fly By Night - Rush

If there's one word that should be as far away from Rush's music as possible it would be average. At the start of their career though, you could easily mistake these guys for every other Led Zeppelin ripoff coming out in the mid '70s, with most of their first album getting into the bluesy territory that Page and Plant had pioneered. After a tour that left them without drummer John Rutsey, everything changed once Professor Neil Peart was brought on board.

Contributing to the song arrangements as well as writing lyrics for almost every song, this is where the classic version of Rush really starts to come into view. Being the new kid in town, Peart is playing like he has everything to prove, turning the Bad Company stylings into a sound that feels like Yes by way of Black Sabbath on the title track.

The lyrics also took a massive step up as well, talking more about literature like the Ayn Rand pastiche Anthem and getting salty about the state of America on Beneath Between and Behind. There are even a few hints at what Rush would be capable of in just a few years, with By Tor and the Snow Dog being their first attempt to write a story driven song with multiple parts to it. Even though it was only a few months in between both of these albums, you'd swear that these prog legends had grown up by 5 years in that timeframe.