Styx-Serpent Is Rising

Studio Cd 10 songs
1973

1 Witch Wolf
2 The Grove of Eglantine
3 Young Man
4 As Bad as This
5 Winner Take All
6 22 Years
7 Jonas Psalter
8 The Serpent Is Rising
9 Krakatoa
10 Hallelujah Chorus


I remember when I first got his album (CD), I put it on and cranked it up. I was totally blown away by the opening track, Witch Wolf, JY had created an awesome rocker. But things didn't awesome for long. The Grove of Eglantine, by Dennis falls flat, one of my least liked songs by Dennis. I do not like the way it is sang, arranged, I just don't care for it. But JY, again saves the CD with the third track, Young Man. This track has a meaning behind it, and can still be sung today as easily as when the Vietnam war was going on. And this song kicks butt. JC, enters the game with a good As Bad As This, but by the time the track is over, a non listed song pops up, Plexiglass Toilet. This has to be the worst Styx song in history. Its a embarrassment to listen to, when I play the CD now, I have to hit the skip button. It's hard to keep listening to the CD after hearing this song, most of the time, I'm able to move on to the next song. But since its a "hidden" song its tacked onto the end of As Bad As This, and you can't program your player to skip "Plexi"without skipping "As bad as.." The next song is Winner Takes All, a good message, but Jy voice is whiny, and the CD never really recovers with the following tracks.The CD really tries to rock, and at points it really does. Witch Wolf, and Young Man are two of JY's finest. Dennis writes three songs and sings vocals on two, one of witch is a duet with JC. As a concept CD, which it tries to be, it comes up very short with its dark message. Basically it is some songs (most of them poorly produced and written) with a very very thin theme in some of them.
D