Canada’s finest export didn’t arrive fully formed on their first album, but replacing their original drummer with percussion prodigy Neil Peart put the “power” in their power trio and turned these former Zep-clones into classic rock’s very own King Ghidorah. Their second strange brew signaled that they were ready for takeoff: the first appearance of comic book supervillain Ayn Rand (whose philosophy Peart thankfully Atlas shrugged off later but which makes for pretty killer teenage rebellion lyrics), an opaque prog epic (this time about two dogs fighting), even the token Tolkien tune. On the title track, Geddy Lee finds his voice, screeching like the screech owl on the cover as it swoops down on Toronto’s unluckiest rodent.

– Jeff Treppel