Rush has set a May 1 release date for its 18th studio album, "Snakes & Arrows." The Anthem/Atlantic set will be preceded by the single "Far Cry," which will hit U.S. rock radio outlets in mid-March. "Snakes & Arrows" is the follow-up to 2002's "Vapor Trails."

Drummer Neil Peart previously told Billboard.com some of his lyrics for the new songs were inspired by his motorcycle journeys throughout the United States, chronicled in his book "Roadshow: Landscape With Drums."

"Just seeing the power of evangelical Christianity and contrasting that with the power of fundamentalist religion all over the world in its different forms had a big effect on me," he said.

"You try to put your own way of seeing the world into some kind of congruence with other peoples, and that's difficult for me," he admits. "I mean, I see the world in what I think to be a perfectly obvious and rational way, but when you go out into it and see the way other people think and behave, and express themselves on church signs, you realize, 'Well, I'm not really part of this club.'"

Dates have yet to be announced, but Rush will return to the road for the first time in three years this summer.