Taking listeners on a journey through
Rush's seminal, prog-heavy early period,
Sector 1 is the first in a series of three box sets released by the band in 2011. Collecting the band's first five albums,
Rush,
Fly by Night,
Caress of Steel,
2112, and the live album
All the World's a Stage, the set shows
Rush finding their feet artistically as they grow from a
Led Zeppelin-inspired blues-rock band on their debut to the wildly ambitious band that released
2112, an album with a 20-minute title track. As a bit of nostalgia, the albums are all repackaged in CD scale re-creations of the original LP jackets, giving
Rush fans the opportunity to pour over these albums as they were when they were released, even if it's in a somewhat diminutive form. Also, as one would expect from a reissue, all of the albums here have been remastered, and for the audiophiles out there, the set even includes a bonus DVD-Audio version of
Fly by Night, which features both a stereo and a 5.1 Surround mix of the album, making
Sector 1 a great way to experience the early days of
Rush. ~ Gregory Heaney