New STYX Album Will Contain ‘Really Great Songs’ With ‘Some Progressive Leanings’

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In a new interview with Pete Pardo of Sea Of Tranquility, STYX drummer Todd Sucherman spoke about the musical and lyrical direction of the upcoming follow-up to 2017's "The Mission" album. He said: "It's really great songs and great songwriting. There's definitely some progressive leanings. There's some beautiful melodies. Some songs, lyrically, sound like they were written in the middle of the pandemic, but they were written before the pandemic. I know a lot of people are gonna probably read things into the lyrics, and go, 'Oh, they're singing about that.' Prophetically, it was written months before that. But that's really all I can say. Top to bottom, there's not a dog in the batch." This past October, Shaw told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" that the new STYX album was "done. Unfortunately, we're gonna have to wait [to release the LP] until we can go out and perform and help to promote the album," he said. "'Cause otherwise, we're just handing it to Spotify. We put a lot of time, energy and resources into doing this and would like an opportunity to be able to sell some albums and that sort of thing, and not come back with a 15-cent check at the end of the year." Released in June 2017, "The Mission" marked STYX's first new LP in 14 years. It was recorded at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, co-produced and co-written with Will Evankovich, a longtime collaborator of Shaw's in the SHAW/BLADES band and who also plays with THE GUESS WHO. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, four straight STYX albums sold at least two million copies — "The Grand Illusion" (1977), "Pieces Of Eight" (1978), "Cornerstone" (1979) and "Paradise Theatre" (1981). The band eventually replaced original singer/keyboardist/songwriter Dennis DeYoung in 1999 with Lawrence Gowan.