''The Mission'' is the sixteenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; ; lit. "Shuddering"), also called the River Styx, is a goddess and one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. Her parents were the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas and the moth ...

, released on June 16, 2017, through UM^e. It is the band's first studio album since 2005's ''

Big Bang Theory The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including the ...

'' and their first release of original material since 2003's ''

Cyclorama A cyclorama is a panoramic image on the inside of a cylindrical platform, designed to give viewers standing in the middle of the cylinder a 360° view, and also a building designed to show a panoramic image. The intended effect is to make view ...

''. The album reached #45 on the Billboard 200, propelled by pre-sales prior to its official release date, but fell off the chart after 2 weeks. In an era with limited album sales, total U.S. Sales were approximately 15,000 copies, a far cry from the band's triple platinum past. Yet, the album did briefly reach the Top 100 in four other countries. The

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

tells the story of a mission to the planet

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

in the year 2033. The album's story was written by Tommy Shaw and

Will Evankovich William Eric Evankovich (born April 6, 1972) is an American singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer, best known for his performances with Styx, The Guess Who, and rock duo Shaw Blades (with Tommy Shaw from Styx and Jack Blades from Night Ran ...

. Evankovich played a significant role, serving as producer and co-writing all but one of the full length tracks. The album was conceived in 2015 when Tommy Shaw composed the guitar riff that became the record's closing track, "Mission to Mars". The first lines Shaw wrote were "Now we can say it / This is the day / We'll be on our way / On our mission to Mars". The story was then formed around this idea. Styx announced the album in conjunction with the release of the lead single "Gone Gone Gone", while "Radio Silence" and "Hundred Million Miles from Home" were later made available prior to the album's release. The LP was expanded in 2018 and re-released in 5.1 surround sound (both DTS Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD) on a Blu-ray disc with visualizations for each song as well as a various music videos from the album and a "Making of the Mission" documentary.

Reception

The album was well received by

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Stephen Erlewine, awarding the release four out of five stars and considered it a return to form for the band. In his qualitative review, he emphasised the strength of the material harkening back to the band's late 70s material and ''Paradise Theatre'' album, despite not having

Dennis DeYoung Dennis DeYoung (born February 18, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and keyboardist. He was a founding member of the rock band Styx and served as its primary lead vocalist and keyboardist from 1972 until 1999. DeYoung was the band's most ...

as the band's frontman.

Track listing

Personnel

Styx

Lawrence Gowan Lawrence Henry Gowan (born 22 November 1956) is a Scottish people, Scottish born Canadians, Canadian singer and keyboardist. Gowan is a solo artist and has also been vocalist and keyboardist of the band Styx (band), Styx since May 1999. His mus ...

vocals, keyboards *

Tommy Shaw Tommy Roland Shaw (born September 11, 1953) is an American singer and guitarist best known for his tenure in the rock band Styx (band), Styx as co-lead vocalist. In between his stints with Styx, he has played with other groups including Damn Yan ...

vocals, guitars, mandolin * James "JY" Youngvocals, guitars *

Ricky Phillips Ricky Lynn Phillips (born October 7, 1952) is an American bass guitarist and was a member of the rock band Styx from 2003 to 2024, splitting duties with original bassist Chuck Panozzo. He has also played in Nasty Habit, as a member of the Babys ...

bass *

Todd Sucherman Todd Sucherman (born May 2, 1969) is an American drummer, who is best known for being a member of Styx since March 1995. Early life Sucherman grew up in a musical family and followed in his father's footsteps by playing the drums. His father, A ...

drums, percussion, waterphone *

additional keyboards, guitars, vocals, sound effects, production, engineering

Production

*Alan Hertzengineering *Sean Badumengineering *JR Tayloradditional engineering *Jim Scottmixing *Kevin Deanassistant mixing engineer * Derek Sharpadditional editing *Richard Duddmastering *Todd Gallopocover illustration, art direction & design *Jason Powellband photography

Charts

References

External links

Styx - ''The Mission'' (2017) album review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, credits & releases
at

AllMusic.com AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the data ...

Styx - ''The Mission'' (2017) album releases & credits
at

Discogs.com Discogs ( ; short for "discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''The N ...

Styx - ''The Mission'' (2017) album to be listened
as stream at Spotify.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Mission 2017 albums Styx (band) albums Science fiction concept albums Universal Music Enterprises albums Mars in culture Fiction set in 2033