Whether it's the heady rush of the groundwork-laying opening track "The Fight of Our Lives", the wistfully observational treatise of "Reveries", the cautionary extended hand of comfort and redemption that frames "Hold Back The Darkness", the undeniable uplift of "Our Wonderful Lives" (a beautiful sentiment further embellished by a most welcome, first-ever appearance by a banjo on a STYX album!), or the elegiac clarion call for shared grace in "To Those", "Crash Of The Crown" is music that is both concurrently of its time and truly timeless all at once.
That's why STYX remains relevant after all this time, because we're part of the human condition." "Both he and Will have been able to tap into the core elements of the human condition, which is something that's not going to change that much in 50 years - or even 500 years.
Lawrence's all-too-brief aquatic fever dream. "I'm constantly amazed at how Tommy's songwriting continues to connect with the social consciousness that spans across generations," marvels Chuck, who plays on "Our Wonderful Lives" and "Lost At Sea". Of all those who made the trek to Nashville, original STYX bassist Chuck Panozzo - who, along with his late twin brother, drummer John Panozzo, formed the initial nucleus of STYX when they began jamming together in their basement on the south side of Chicago in 1961 - is hands down the most effusive about the experience. Safety precautions took precedent for all involved STYX bandmembers and production compatriots with much diligent quarantining and testing required before any one of them could travel to Shaw's tranquility homebase to spread the uniquely ingrained STYX stardust that's been duly sprinkled across the album's cosmically chosen 15 tracks. But the global pandemic that inevitably transformed the way we all wound up living in 2020 changed the course for how many of the band's home-and-away recording sessions ultimately had to set socially distanced sail. I also got to use some gear I never thought I'd have the chance to play on a STYX record like Tommy's Hammond B3 organ, my Minimoog, and my Mellotron."Įfforts to record "Crash Of The Crown" began in earnest at Shaw's home studio in Nashville during the fall of 2019, with Gowan - STYX's criminally minded showman extraordinaire and keyboardist/vocalist since 1999 - in the room together with Shaw and the album's producer, Will Evankovich, as he conjured up the album's first song to be recorded, with cosmetic flourishes that reign over the insistent, yearning call for togetherness, "Common Ground". The beauty of it is that it's the culmination of all our talents crammed together into one song, 'Abbey Road'-style. "I'm always looking for the one different thing we can do and still have it be STYX," the ever-ebullient Gowan notes, "and that's the song I'm most proud of. Actually, it's the first cut in the band's storied canon to feature three lead vocalists, seeing how it has Young unleashed at the starting gate, Shaw heading up the heroic stacked-vocal middle section, and Gowan leading the vocal charge for the final verse. The "Crash Of The Crown" song breaks some brave new world ground for STYX, which consists of 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.
STYX drummer Todd Sucherman's playthrough video of the title track of the band's upcoming album, "Crash Of The Crown", can be seen below.ĭue on June 18 via the band's label, Alpha Dog 2T/ UMe, "Crash Of The Crown" was written pre-pandemic and recorded during the trying times of the coronavirus crisis.
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