THE SERPENT IS RISING

Styx's third effort is their most progressive one from the Curulewski-era, and even in terms of pure rock history, this is the band's zenith during the often overlooked Crulewski years. While maintaining their arena rock essence, they manage to assimilate some of the ELP pompous splendour (track 3) and Yes majestic colorfulness (tracks 2 and 7). As in all their early albums, Styx fails to elaborate a completely cohesive repertoire, but IMHO, this repertoire contains a large amount of real inspired tracks and well oiled performances. It is a pity that DeYoung chooses to keep a limited role as a lead singer, since most of his own songs have JY as the lead singer. I actually like JY's powerful singing, but as a matter of fact DeYoung's style and timber are the vocal signature for Styx. 'The Serpent is Rising' kicks off with the ballsy 'Witch Wolf', displaying a Uriah Heep inspired fire with a slight GFR twist. 'The Grove of Eglantine' and 'Jonas Psalter' exhibit a more definite prog edge thanks to the clever use of instrumental passages and vocal harmonies: DeYoung's deeply artsy concerns about his own keyboardist's role (clavinet, organ, Moog, even some mellotron ornaments for good effect) help the band explore their calculated prog tendencies (especially regarding teh construction of soem subtle Renaissance moods occasionally), and the dual guitars deliver riffs and leads in elegant fashion. But, all in all, it's fair to say that the most challenging compositions here are the angst-driven anti-bellicist 'Young Man' and the sombre title track. The former is a lovely rock with obvious sophisticated ambitions, and its fiery finale has got to be one of the most explosive closures in the band's history - it is conveniently built up by the main body that combines typically American hard rock with Emersonian chops. The latter states a clever psychedelic development of the heavier side of vintage symphonic rock: Floydian moods and Yessian ornaments are handled to fit well the overall hard rock scheme. Curulewski really nailed it at covneiving this song: raspy menacing singing, majestic vocal harmonies in the choruses, a gloomy mixture of dark guitar leads displayed on 12-string arpeggios in the interlude, all this and more. I usually listen to these tracks twice or thrice in a row before letting the CD move on toward the closure. On the other side of things, Curulewski and his band mates display their acoustic sensibility in 'As Bad as This', which starts as a gentle ELP-ish ballad and ends as a childish Wings-like tune. A special mention goes to the closing duet: 'Krakatoa' is basically an apocalyptical poem that Curulewski reads ceremoniously above sinsiter synth layers, immediately leading into a Hallelujah choral fanfare accompanied by a loud church organ. If not totally genius, at least an oddly entertaining way to end an album. Generally speaking, "The Serpent Is Rising" will please all those Styx skeptics who happen to enjoy Kansas' first 3 albums and other US prog items such as Mirthrandir or Lift.