STYX
Circling From Above ALPHA DOG 2T/UME
Chicago’s AOR-prog veterans return in fine fettle.
It’s not a bona fide concept LP à la 2017’s The Mission, which imagined a recce to Mars in 2033, but Styx’s 18th album continues the long-running US band’s recent prog-orientated renaissance, as last heard on 2021’s Crash Of The Crown. Amid a seven-piece line-up with talent to burn, old-hand guitarists James ‘JY’ Young and Tommy Shaw plus founding (and these days part-time) bassist Chuck Panozzo sound galvanised and vital, while younger co-writers Will Evankovich (guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Lawrence Gowan (piano, synth, Mellotron) prove especially crucial to these hyper-melodic, ingeniously succinct songs.