Throughout a question-and-answer session aboard this yr’s Rock Legends Cruise in February 2025, STYX singer Lawrence Gowan spoke in regards to the band’s upcoming album, “Circling From Above”, which is tentatively due this spring. Concerning the inspiration for the follow-up to “Crash Of The Crown” , which got here out in 2021, Gowan stated (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Effectively, fairly actually, since [STYX producer and multi-instrumentalist] Will [Evankovich] joined the band — Will was the producer at first and a co-writer, and that actually impressed us to start out making new music once more. Additionally, the boring half is that the music trade itself, it sort of righted itself in plenty of methods. There was a resurgence in curiosity in vinyl data, and the concept of an album being a murals as an alternative of, as all of us are on our telephones, flipping via issues each ten seconds, as an alternative you’ve that have of listening to a bit of music that takes about forty minutes and you start to get this type of what some folks consult with as a theater of the thoughts going. And that is actually what impressed us to do this. So, as a author, Will can be very, very, extraordinarily robust. And he was capable of sort of give attention to what we must always do on new data. So [2017’s] ‘The Mission’ was very profitable. ‘Crash Of The Crown’, as we point out in each present so modestly, that it went to Quantity One within the Billboard Rock Album chart. That is a giant mark for us, the truth that that occurred, and it gave us the boldness to maintain making data. It is a part of the lifeblood of what retains the band alive. Anyway, I feel you are gonna get pleasure from it — nicely, I do know you are gonna get pleasure from this new document. We predict it’s totally robust.”
Requested when followers can count on the brand new STYX album, Gowan stated: “Finish of Might.”
In a separate interview with Boomerocity, Gowan said about “Circling From Above”: “You do not wanna say an excessive amount of about it. All I can say is we’ll be rehearsing a few extra songs from it at present, this afternoon, in our soundcheck, and if I can decide by our crew’s response to it and the people who listened to it in the previous couple of days, I might say that there is a good share of individuals on the market which might be going to get pleasure from it. There I’ve stated it.”
Final December, STYX guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw instructed Final Traditional Rock in regards to the band’s upcoming LP: “I assume we simply stumbled upon a approach of doing it. Simply writing, you do not have to put in writing the entire thing at one time. Like Will and I, we have been writing songs collectively for you recognize for 10, 15 years. And after we get one which we like, Will’s much more organized than I’m, however he’ll put it on a tough drive. And so we had amassed a complete bunch of songs. Out of the blue, we received scorching writing new stuff. After which we went again and checked out another issues and stated this stuff all all of it goes collectively. Now we’re engaged on [the album] and ending it. And it is thrilling.”
Shaw described the upcoming STYX launch as “an amazing rock album” and added that “real-life experiences” had been the lyrical inspiration for lots of the new tracks.
“You are writing about your experiences in your life and issues that you just love and luxuriate in, or issues that had been onerous to undergo and that form of factor,” he stated. “So that you’re simply actually simply writing a e book in little sections like that. And we have got a fairly good one going right here.”
The legendary rockers wrote “Crash Of The Crown” pre-pandemic and recorded it through the attempting instances of the coronavirus disaster.
Forbes described “Crash Of The Crown” as one wherein “its sweeping, dramatic and anthemic sound instantly remembers the band’s traditional works of the Seventies and early Eighties.” It was the follow-up to “The Mission”, STYX‘s first LP in 14 years, which critics additionally had referred to as “a masterpiece”.
STYX — James “JY” Younger (lead vocals, guitars),Tommy Shaw (lead vocals, guitars),Chuck Panozzo (bass, vocals),Todd Sucherman (drums, percussion),Lawrence Gowan (lead vocals, keyboards),Will Evankovich (mandolin, guitars),Terry Gowan (bass, guitar, vocals) — and Kevin Cronin, the long-lasting voice and author behind REO SPEEDWAGON‘s best hits, lately wrapped up massively profitable sold-out residencies at The Venetian Theatre. For the primary time of their 50-plus-year profession in Las Vegas, Nevada, STYX carried out 1977’s “The Grand Phantasm” in its entirety, whereas REO SPEEDWAGON carried out 1980’s “Hello Infidelity” in its entirety.
As a result of overwhelming response from each residencies, STYX and the KEVIN CRONIN BAND introduced final month that they are bringing these particular album exhibits for the primary time, plus their hits, to the amphitheaters and arenas later this summer time as a part of their “Brotherhood Of Rock” tour.
The “Brotherhood Of Rock” tour, together with particular visitor Don Felder (a former lead guitarist of THE EAGLES),will kick off Might 28 in Greenville, South Carolina on the Bon Secours Wellness Area.
Photograph credit score: Jason Powell