10 Hard Rock Albums That Divided The Fanbase
1. Caress of Steel - Rush
Out of all the prog rock bands to come out of the 70's, no one could bring the heaviness quite like Rush. From their sprawling epics to their furious solos, the band had everything you could have wanted out of a prog outfit, only filtered through the metallic lens of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
Though the band would eventually find their core audience with the album 2112, Caress of Steel showed the band on shaky ground. This was the first time the band started to expand beyond the conventional song structures, with tracks like "The Necromancer" and "The Fountain of Lamneth" each going well over 10 minutes. While this may have seemed like a sure-fire success for Rush, the band's first delve into this style left many rock fans confused rather than entertained.
Though the album had essential Rush cuts like "Bastille Day," there were just as many fans who were jumping ship after the more experimental material. The tour for this record even went down in infamy as the "down-the-tubes" tour, with the band struggling to fill the shows they were playing. These guys definitely had the musical magic in there somewhere, but Caress of Steel was proof that that the band hadn't quite found their groove just yet.