PARADISE THEATRE

Doing a concept album just as you are dialling back the prog aspects of your work and presenting a more straight- ahead AOR style might be counterintuitive, but on Paradise Theatre the tactic pays off for Styx.

Hilariously. Christian groups and censorious politicians got upset about Snowblind - the former outright accusing it of being Satanic - despite the fact that it's not remotely as heavy as, say, Sabbath's song of the same name. There's at most a mild increase in the proportion of hard rock in the band's sound here compared to Cornerstone - but Cornerstone was a low water mark in that respect, and much of the album tends towards the softer end of AOR.

If you were charmed by The Grand Illusion because of the prog touches that Styx incorporated here and there in their sound and found their more straightforward material and ballads uninspiring, you likely won't dig this, but for those who find the latter aspects of their sound endearing this is a bit of a treat.