THE SERPENT IS RISING

I was a big fan of this band for rock in general and never much thought of them as very prog until later on as I thought about it. The first album I heard was Styx II in 1977 after John C departed and grew fond of Father OSA which was a simpler prog song. I got curious and bought their catalog (Styx 1-Equinox) and it became apparent they were trying to fit themselves into multiple holes. I personally like the blend and I know many don't and have commented here about the confusing pattern of songs.

Styx 1 was about my least favorite and of course Equinox was the staple of John's era of the band. This album and Man of Miracles were stuffed in between and as "SouthSideoftheSky" noted, they could have easily taken the best songs of both albums and made a single great one. This album came out a matter of months after Styx II. The band were in that 'finding out who we are' stage. JY was always the straight forward rocker and DeYoung was the theatrical prog head but John C also contributed in that area.

The album is not as bad as DeYoung has stated. He said it was "one of the worst recorded and produced in the history of music." I can think of hundreds of albums that would fit there before this would. I like "Grove of Eglante" & "Jonas Psalter" and other strong tracks are the title track, "Witch Wolf" and "Winnwer Take All.' I agree that the so called "hidden track" (or shall we say hideous track?) "Plexiglass Toilet" was extremely out of place and it was said it ws a favorite of Weird All Yankovich which should tell anyone it has no place on an album with a band like this. It is more suited for Cheech and Chong or Al himself. I do have to admit John C's voice and the words are a crack up.

This album definitely is as people have said all over the place between differing writing styles and 3 songwriters in the group but for the most part Styx always had 3 writers. I cannot give this album a high rating but I sure won't give it a low one. It is what it is and it is part of their growth as a band.