The best Neil Peart performance on every Rush album
Neil Peart is truly a man who needs no introduction. Throughout 40 years of drumming with legendary Canadian progressive rock giants Rush, Peart carved out an identity based on the perfect mix of precision and power. Peart was as fast and loud as Keith Moon, as impactful and groove-centred as John Bonham, and as technical and accurate as Buddy Rich.
Over five decades of recordings and live performances, Peart became one of the most beloved and awe-inspiring drummers in rock music. Whether it was crafting intricate solos, pushing his own boundaries with new techniques, or integrating modern technology to explore different genres, Peart worked hard to be the best at what he did. For those 40 years, it was hard to argue that anybody was any better.
To honour him, we’re going deep by looking at every Rush studio album Peart drummed on and picking out his best performances. Sometimes his greatest achievements were stamina-testing marathons. Other times, they were when Peart could do the most in the least amount of time. Whatever style he was playing, it was impossible to mistake Peart for any other drummer.
Peart wasn’t featured on the band’s first album, 1974’s Rush. That still leaves 18 studio albums worth of amazing drum performances across five decades. Here are all the best performances from each of those studio albums.
Neil Peart’s best performances on every Rush album:
Fly By Night – ‘Anthem’
Peart came out the gate swinging on his first-ever Rush track. ‘Anthem’ was a noticeable change for fans of the band’s early Led Zeppelin-inspired sound. More complex and experimental than anything on their first album, ‘Anthem’ showed off the new Rush, one where technical proficiency and mastery of time signatures were the new normal.
Peart’s playing is at once green and fully formed. He hits the drums like it’s his final chance to make an impression in the music world, and knowing his backstory, he very well may have thought that way. It’s pure impact without sacrificing precision, something that would define Peart for decades to come.
Caress of Steel – ‘The Fountain of Lamneth’
‘By-Tor and the Snow Dog’ from Fly By Night was Rush’s first major step in embracing thematic progressive rock epics. By Caress of Steel, they were all in. Side A contained the 12-minute sci-fi rocker ‘The Necromancer’ inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien. Side B contained their first side-long saga, ‘The Fountain of Lamneth’.
With enough space to include multiple tempo and time signature changes, ‘The Fountain of Lamneth’ was the coming out party for Rush as the premiere progressive rock band. Peart gets to stretch out his chops, including his first on-record drum solo.
2112 – ‘2112’
After the commercial failure of Caress of Steel, logic would have told Rush to return to the original simplistic hard rock sound. Instead, the band decided to double down on the complexity of their previous progressive sound by crafting an epic 20-minute sci-fi extravaganza with every intention of breaking up once the resulting album failed to connect.
Instead, 2112 proved to be the breakthrough that Rush was looking for. Scores of new fans were enchanted by the Side-A suite that remains one of the benchmarks for technical rock music. Maybe it’s cheating to put the entire ‘2112’ suite on here, so if you can only stick around for a few minutes, check out the opening ‘Overture’ section, which features some of Peart’s most astounding and whiplash-inducing shifts in tempo and dynamics.
A Farewell to Kings – ‘Xanadu’
Rush really settled into their groove on A Farewell to Kings. Now comfortable in their elaborate style, the three-piece added new sonic layers to their sound, including prominent keyboard and synthesiser arrangements for the first time. The results were a newly expanded sound for Canada’s favourite trio of progressive rockers.
The album features what is undoubtedly one of Peart’s finest drum performances: ‘Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage’. But what sets ‘Xanadu’ apart is Peart’s mastery of percussion on top of his magnificent drum performance. Featuring wind chimes, orchestral bells, and wood blocks, ‘Xanadu’ is Peart at his most flashy and fantastic.
Hemispheres – ‘La Villa Strangiato’
By the time Rush got to recording Hemispheres, they were extending beyond even their own incredible musical abilities. Short songs like ‘The Trees’ were incredibly complex, while longer tracks like ‘Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres’ featured some of the most dexterous and impossibly complicated arrangements that the band would ever attempt.
It all culminates in ‘La Villa Strangiato’, a nine-minute monster of a closing track. Telling subtitled ‘An Exercise in Self-Indulgence’, the song features just about every trick and turn that all three musicians had picked up in their first decade of performance. It would cause Rush to seek out a different musical direction, but ‘La Villa Strangiato’ very well may remain “the benchmark of drumming”, as Rush superfan and Peart acolyte Mike Portnoy put it in the documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage.
Permanent Waves – ‘The Spirit of Radio’
There’s a slight misconception that Rush decided to forgo the insanely complex arrangements of their past work and turn to a more pop-friendly sound on Permanent Waves. The truth is that while the album does feature shorter songs, those tracks are no less complicated than any of the band’s previous material.
Although songs like ‘Jacob’s Latter’ and ‘Natural Science’ feature Peart as his most compact and eerily precise, there’s no need to try and get cute with this pick. Generations of air drummers have memorized every last hit to ‘The Spirit of Radio’ for a reason, and the song remains one of Peart’s most iconic performances. It’s also damn good, which is mainly what we care about for this list.
Moving Pictures – ‘YYZ’
Moving Pictures features the ultimate synthesis of Peart’s technical dexterity and more restrained song-styling. It’s also an album that features the highest rate of iconic drum performances per song: ‘Red Barchetta’, ‘Limelight’, and especially ‘Tom Sawyer’.
It feels sacrilege not to put ‘Tom Sawyer’ on here, considering how it’s literally one of the best drum performances of all time, but this is an album that happens to feature two of the greatest drum performances of all time. And for our money, there’s just no way you can beat the excitement and wonderfully show-off-y qualities of the legendary instrumental ‘YYZ’.
Signals – ‘Subdivisions’
After Moving Pictures proved that Rush could bring in a more keyboard-heavy sound without losing their way, the band decided to make the synthesiser their main focal point on Signals. Peart is still his flamboyant self on great tracks like ‘New World Man’ and ‘Countdown’, but he was starting to get more self-conscious and rigid in the age of drum machines.
There’s no such stiffness on ‘Subdivisions’, the ultimate combination of Peart’s massive talent on drums and insightful taste when it comes to crafting lyrics. Peart’s ability to never repeat himself throughout the five and a half minutes of ‘Subdivisions’ without falling outside of the song’s carefully-rafted arrangement is a massive achievement in and of itself.
Grace Under Pressure – ‘Afterimage’
Rush began to explore a lighter sonic sound on Grace Under Pressure, something that began to alienate long-time devotees of the band. This was perhaps the first true progressive metal band in the world, and now they were surrounded by extensive layers of keyboards and heavily synthesised arrangements. Even the guitars were starting to lose some of their edge.
The heaviness could still be found in songs like ‘Red Sector A’ and ‘Distant Early Warning’, but Peart’s octopus-like hits are on full display on ‘Afterimage’, the slightly poppy album cut that Peart injects huge amounts of energy into. Even though he’s got piano glissandos and cheesy ’80s keyboard sounds to reckon with, Peart is still in full control throughout ‘Afterimage’.
Power Windows – ‘Marathon’
Power Windows shows off a version of Rush that is almost unrecognisable from the Rush that existed a decade prior. That is until you listen closely: there are still time signature changes and ridiculously complex arrangements throughout the album. It’s just more synthetic than the band had been in the past.
‘Marathon’ is a great example of Peart’s uncanny ability to integrate both acoustic and electronic drums without losing his signature sound. Peart’s lightning-fast hits and eerie precision are still floating around ‘Marathon’, they’re just in a slightly different guise.
Hold Your Fire – ‘Time Stand Still’
Eve while the band is going through a change in feel, Peart still somehow knows how to craft brilliant songs as the group leans heavily into a new style. It happened with ‘Subdivisions’ and again on Hold Your Fire with ‘Time Stand Still’.
Hold Your Fire is certainly one of the lesser Rush studio albums, but ‘Time Stand Still’ is a highlight of Rush’s entire 1980s. That’s especially true for Peart’s drums. He doesn’t sound like a 35-year-old man: he sounds like a young athlete who is still able to channel his greatest abilities. That’s exactly what Peart was, as proved by the rapid fills and creative rhythms of ‘Time Stand Still’.
Presto – ‘Show Don’t Tell’
Presto was the first time that Rush consciously tried to move away from their established synthesiser-heavy style of the 1980s. Unfortunately, the band couldn’t quite return to their rock and roll roots since Presto sounds remarkably rubbery and soft throughout its runtime.
The major exception is the opening track ‘Show Don’t Tell’. With the band locked into their twisty-turny mastery of time signatures, an explosion of furious hard rock comes out of the song’s central riff. Peart is on top form, guiding the band through the complex arrangement with style.
Roll the Bones – ‘Face Up’
In all honesty, Rush just sounds lost on Roll the Bones. Should they return to their progressive metal sound? Bring back in synthesisers? Become a Primus ripoff funk outfit? It certainly doesn’t sound like they know, and as a result, the band tries on a number of different guises that ultimately don’t work for them.
‘Face Up’ is more akin to the band’s late-’80s sound, but it does feature one of Peart’s most underrated drum performances. By this time, Peart is in his 40s, but he only seems to be adding new techniques and tricks to his arsenal. ‘Face Up is frantic and frenetic in a way that Peart hadn’t been in years, and it all adds up to a fantastic throw-back drum arrangement.
Counterparts – ‘Animate’
Another album where Peart’s best drum performance comes right out of the gate on the first track, Counterparts saw Rush waving goodbye to the lighter tones that surrounded their 1980s work for good. In its place was a more muscular, guitar-centric sound that connected with “the rock and roll guts” of Rush, as Geddy Lee put it.
‘Animate’ is eager to prove that heaviness right at the start as Peart blasts out of the opening count-off with one of his heaviest drum takes in years. Featuring some heavy bass drum hits and remarkably smooth rolls across his toms, ‘Animate’ sounds like Rush are finally having fun leaning into their technical rock chops once again.
Test For Echo – ‘Driven’
Test For Echo featured a brand new Neil Peart, one who was now obsessed with integrating techniques of jazz into his hard rock style. The results aren’t always the most consistent as he tends to hang back on most of the album’s tracks, but that is certainly not the case on ‘Driven’.
With a monster bass-heavy arrangement from Geddy Lee, Peart needs to step up in order to match his bandmates on ‘Driven’. That’s exactly what Peart does, mostly leaning into his hard rock roots while throwing in the occasional snare drum roll or shuffle beat when he can.
Vapor Trails – ‘One Little Victory’
After a bevvy of tragic events that surrounded his life, Peart returned to Rush out of practice and uncertain of his own abilities. The rest of the band were looking to take on more of a metal sound, something that required Peart to play heavier and faster than he had in decades. Since this was still Neil Peart, he stepped up to prove that he was still rock’s pre-eminent drummer.
With rapid double bass drum rhythms to match the almost speed metal riffs laid down by his bandmates, Peart returned to form with ‘One Little Victory’, perhaps his greatest drum performance of the final decade of his career. Nobody could play the drum line laid down by Peart, from his deft mastery of basic rudiments to the extreme speed of his fills.
Snakes and Arrows – ‘Malignant Narcissism’
With the heaviness restored to their sound, Rush decided to lay out and integrate more instrumentals than they ever had on any album for Snakes and Arrows. Each one is a masterclass in arranging and playing off your fellow musicians, but if one stands above the rest, it has to be the quick two-minute blast of ‘Malignant Narcissism’.
Peart decided to strip down his normal drum kit into a more compact and basic set-up, forcing him to get creative with fewer drums and cymbals. As a result, he focuses less on running up and down the kit and more on making every hit count. Even with a reduced set-up, Peart loses none of his power or precision.
Clockwork Angels – ‘Clockwork Angels’
With the final Rush album, it would have seemed logical that Peart might have lost a step or two as he crossed into his 60s. Instead, the world’s greatest drummer came to play, ready to prove that he was as on top of his game as ever. In terms of pure excitement, no track proves that Peart was still his classic self as much as the album’s title track.
‘Clockwork Angels’ sees Peart stretching out to neatly summarize his six decades of life behind the kit. As a final definitive statement, the track shows that Peart was still as dexterous, exacting, and powerful as he had ever been. It’s Peart’s last classic performance, and it remains one for the history books.
