CIRCLING FROM ABOVE

With Circling from Above (2025), Styx delivers the third album of its renewed incarnation. It follows The Mission (2017) and Crash of the Crown (2021). The compositional focus this time is on short songs that together tell a larger story, and the result is their best sound since The Grand Illusion. If this truly continues that classic style now led by Tommy Shaw and James Young this could mark a more progressive, revitalized Styx, and perhaps one of their finest periods in the band's history.

Before, I missed Dennis DeYoung a little, but with these last albums I think Styx does not need or depend on him. The band now has a great singer and keyboard player in Lawrence Gowan, who has been with them for years. They are joined by the classic Chuck Panozzo on bass, the incredible Todd Sucherman on drums, and two members from Tommy Shaw's band: Will Evankovich on guitars and Terry Gowan on bass.

13 songs ? 40 minutes. Short, tightly crafted tracks flow into each other like chapters in a cinematic journey.

Circling from Above is an excellent album full of the elements that those of us who love Styx can find here: compositions that hook you, strong harmonies, guitar solos, and keyboard solos. But you have to like Styx the most classic Styx, not the one with the hits. They clearly took full advantage of technology in the design and videos, with heavy use of AI but if it's there, why not? I'm not gonna judge a book by its cover right?

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