12 Best Closing Songs On Hard Rock Albums

Out of all the great bands to come out of the 70's, Rush were certainly known to paint their songs with a bit of an epic slant. With many of their signature tunes eclipsing 6 or 7 minutes, this power trio always sought to take you on a ride with their music rather than bang out your standard rock tune. Though you always want these epic songs to have a happy ending, sometimes it's even better when left ambiguous.

Coming from their masterpiece A Farewell to Kings, "Cygnus X-1" is a space odyssey the band wrote about a man floating through the stars. As he goes about his work, he sees a black hole in the distance and decides to venture a bit closer. The instrumentation serves almost as a sonic depiction of the black hole, as it proceeds to go from dark and ominous to pulling apart every atom in your body.

Once we hit the final charge of the music and the man is slowly being split apart, the song dissipates into faint wisps of guitar and ambiance, leaving the listener unsure of the man's fate until the next record Hemispheres. Usually artists like to tease their tracks in advance, but this is one of the first times where an artist as big as Rush was able to make a great song that holds up on its own and serves as a slight hint of things to come.