A new era of hope,
survival, and prosperity comes calling with the release of CRASH OF THE CROWN,
STYX’s latest studio album, which was written pre-pandemic and recorded during
the trying times of the pandemic. The legendary and multi-Platinum
rockers--James “JY” Young (lead vocals, guitars), Tommy Shaw (lead vocals,
guitars), Chuck Panozzo (bass, vocals), Todd Sucherman (drums, percussion),
Lawrence Gowan (lead vocals, keyboards) and Ricky Phillips (bass, guitar,
vocals)-- released their 17th album on June 18, 2021 on the band’s label, Alpha
Dog 2T/Ume.
STYX’s holy mission
for cutting CRASH OF THE CROWN was crystal-clear to its co-creator from the
get-go. “Absolutely no obstacles were going to get in the way of how we
approached creating this album,” singer/guitarist Tommy Shaw concludes about
the herculean recording efforts of his fellow COTC makers. “And everything came
out exactly the way we wanted to hear it.”
The six men
comprising Styx have committed to rocking the Paradise together with audiences
far and wide by entering their second decade of averaging over 100 shows a
year, and each one of them is committed to making the next show better than the
last. Styx draws from over four decades of barnburning chart hits, joyous
singalongs, and hard-driving deep cuts. Like a symphony that builds to a
satisfying crescendo, a Styx set covers a wide range of stylistic cornerstones.
Styx hit its stride
with guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw’s first LP with the band, 1976’s Crystal
Ball, and then they become the first group to score four triple-platinum albums
in a row: The Grand Illusion (1977), Pieces of Eight (1978), Cornerstone
(1979), and Paradise Theater (1981). Over the ensuing decade, Styx weathered
the shifting winds of the public’s musical taste, reconvening for a highly
successful 1996 Return to Paradise tour that was expertly documented on both CD
and DVD in 1997. With a little help from their many friends in Cleveland’s
Contemporary Youth Orchestra, One With Everything (2006) became a hybrid
orchestral rock blend for the ages.