{"id":17147,"date":"2017-07-03T01:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T05:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=17147"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:49:49","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:49:49","slug":"album-review-styx-the-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=17147","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Styx &#8211; The Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Styx &#8211; The Mission<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> June 16, 2017<br \/>\n<strong>Label<\/strong>: Eagle Rock Records<\/p>\n<p>Growing as a kid in the 70\u2019s, I was one of many whose dad (or mom if yours was into that) was a Styx fan.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m not talking about that corny Mr. Roboto crap.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking Cornerstone, Pieces of Eight, the Grand Illusion, you know, the great shit.\u00a0 Styx was a band that growing up was \u201cdad rock\u201d to me.\u00a0 I was never a fan of songs like \u201cLady\u201d, \u201cCome Sail Away\u201d, and stuff like that.\u00a0 It just didn\u2019t do much for me but when I got older, my dad shared The Grand Illusion with me and I feel in love with that album.\u00a0 The songs, the delivery, the concept; it was so much more than I expected but in my opinion, Styx never made another album that touched me like that one did\u2026 until now.<\/p>\n<p>The Mission is Styx\u2019s first album of original material since 2003\u2019s Cyclorama which up to this point was the only album to feature Lawrence Gowan on lead vocals\/keys in place of long time member Dennis DeYoung.\u00a0 The Mission is a conceptual album in the sense that it tells a story of space travel that bares a heavy Ziggy Stardust influence.\u00a0 This kind of concept can be a sticky thing in that you really need to do this well or it will just be corny.\u00a0 Styx not only pulled it off with The Mission but they put out, in my opinion, their greatest work since The Grand Illusion.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i1gVIBKZ6cg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The thing that struck me the minute \u201cOverture\/Gone Gone Gone\u201d came on was, \u201cHot damn!\u00a0 Styx sounds like an energized, youthful band.\u201d\u00a0 Gowan brings a certain kind of edge to Styx that DeYoung failed to bring.\u00a0 He has a more suiting voice for a song this rocking yet has a subtle, emotive, yet gravelly feel on the stellar track \u201cThe Greater Good.\u201d\u00a0 This song to me is the absolute showstopper of the album.\u00a0 It gave me chills and had me going in for a 2nd and even 3rd listen before reminding myself that I had more to hear.\u00a0 Long time member Tommy Shaw definitely steps it up on this album and has grown to be a truly fantastic rock n\u2019 roll voice that I really enjoy listening to.\u00a0 \u201cHundred Million Miles from Home\u201d is his shining moment on this album full of win.<\/p>\n<p>The Mission was a huge surprise for me.\u00a0 Styx came off sounding youthful, energized, and full of life.\u00a0 The album is short and sweet which totally worked in their favor.\u00a0 There is no over indulgent wanking, no over inflated compositions, and the album moves at such a great pace that by the time it was over I was going in for another listen.\u00a0 The Mission is proof that less can definitely be more.\u00a0 I wish my dad was alive to hear this album because I just know he would have loved it.\u00a0 The Mission is a must have for any fan of epic\/hard\/progressive rock.\u00a0 If you find yourself asking, \u201cHow good could a Styx album in 2017 be?\u201d after one listen you will find that the answer is, \u201creally fucking good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Styx &#8211; The Mission Release Date: June 16, 2017 Label: Eagle Rock Records Growing as a kid in the 70\u2019s, I was one of many whose dad (or mom if yours was into that) was a Styx fan.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m not talking about that corny Mr. Roboto crap.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking Cornerstone, Pieces of Eight, the Grand Illusion, you know, the great shit.\u00a0 Styx was a band that growing up was \u201cdad rock\u201d to me.\u00a0 I was never a fan of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,277],"tags":[1824,1338],"class_list":["post-17147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-music-news","tag-eagle-rock-records","tag-styx"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19663,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17147\/revisions\/19663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}