THE SERPENT IS RISING

By their third album, Styx had virtually given up on any complicated prog arrangements, and focused on the simpler, radio-friendly song format. Still, they showed their prog chops on some songs; most noteably the keyboard rocker "Jonas Psalter", "Witch Wolf" and the title track.

But then again, this album also contains the painfully bad "As Bad as This" and the embarassingly pretentious inclusion of the Hallelujah Chorus at the end. There are also those who are fans of "The Grove of Eglantine", but I find it too precious and delicate for my tastes.

If you can find some of the songs I mention in the first paragraph on a sampler somewhere, they're definitely worth giving a listen ... the rest of the album should be avoided.