It came as a surprise when Styx announced that they would release an album of new material in 2017.  It had been 14 years since the last album, Cyclorama and the band seemed content to continue entertaining their fans via the tour circuit.  Once the initial shock wore off, more apprehension appeared due to the fact that not only would this be new songs, but the album itself would be a concept album.

Concept albums are a tricky beast.  When done well, like Dream Theater’s Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory, the marriage of song and story work hand in hand, neither one-upping the other, each supporting the other’s end game. When it doesn’t work, like Dream Theater’s The Astonishing one side typically overpowers the other, either the story spirals out of control and the music is second fiddle or the music is so complex the story gets lost.

Styx is no stranger to concept albums.  1981’s Paradise Theatre, while not entire a concept had a basic theme behind most of the songs.  The follow-up 1982’d Kilroy Was Here went full tilt.  A story about a future society where music was outlawed. The album amongst most fans is a disappointment, songs that should have been triumphant were pigeonholed to a sci-fi story. Not that all was bad, “Haven’t We Been Here Before”, “Don’t Let It End”, and the highly mocked but still loved “Mr. Roboto” were quality songs but amongst a sea of filler.

The reason that fans were surprised that Styx would tackle a concept album in 2017 is that the person behind their previous story-telling attempts, Dennis DeYoung has been out of the band since 1999. The remaining band members , led since by Tommy Shaw and James ‘JY’ Young, have been very vocal how they would rather be just a rock band and less Shakespeare.

Styx in 2017 , in addition to Shaw and Young on guitar and vocals, consists of keyboard/vocalist Lawrence Gowan, bassists (yes two) Chuck Panozzo and Ricky Phillips and drummer Todd Sucherman.

Before we can get to the music, just a quick note about the story.  The Mission is about a mission to Mars.  As with most stories about traveling to Mars, bad things happen along the way.  Pretty simple and it has been done in other mediums many times over.  The story was written by Tommy Shaw and collaborator Will Evankovich.  Does the album succeed as a story? Yes, but this is an example where the story and the music work together.  Neither is too over the top.

With all that out of the way, how did Styx do with The Mission?

This is a really good album!  Starting off with “Overture”, the defacto orchestral introduction, it segues in to the first real song “Gone Gone Gone”. With lead vocals by Lawrence Gowan this straight ahead rock track gets the listener’s attention.  Completely underutilized on Cyclorama Gowan’s contributions cannot be understated (more on that later).

The story continues on “Hundred Million Miles From Home” and JY’s sole lead vocal on “Trouble At The Big Show”. 

What follows is a three song suite that ranks amongst the best songs Styx has done.  Shaw sings lead on both “Locomotion” and “Radio Silence”.  It’s amazing that as a singer he has lost nothing as the years have progressed.  Both songs are complex, highlighting that crystal clear voice. Gowan and Shaw trade lead on “The Greater Good”, the most theatrical song of the set, but also the best.  Gowan’s vocals on this song are the highlight of the album to me.  He sings a very intricate part to perfection.  If there is any knock against the song it’s that the chorus is very simple, but that helps to highlight the two vocalist’s contributions during the verses.

Gowan sings lead again on the next track “Time May Bend”, a good middle-tempo song until the uplifting chorus.  It’s hard to understate the contribution Lawrence Gowan makes to this album.  On Cyclorama he sang lead on two short , almost throw-away songs.  Granted at the time, Styx had four lead vocalists as bassist Glen Burnik contributed what I believe the two best songs on that album, so space was limited.

The rest of the songs plays out the story.    In particular “Red Storm” which Styx is playing live this summer, stands out . While the cheese factor (very prevalent in concept albums) does go up with the last two songs “The Outpost” and “Mission to Mars”, it says at a lower level allowing the music to stand out.

Kudos to Styx and Will Evankovich, who co-wrote most of the album with Tommy Shaw, for creating an album that they can stand behind.  My MVP award goes to Lawrence Gowan for his tremendous singing and playing all over. I we don’t have to wait another 14 years for the next one. One last note, the album was recorded using analog equipment and tracked the album to be released on vinyl.  Clocking in at no more than 43 minutes the experience is fairly quick, but feels timed out perfectly.

website: http://www.styxworld.com