Quote:
Originally Posted by almauro
These are all pretty good arena rock bands. When I'm in the mood, you can't top a Foreigner Comp., Infinity, Boston's S/T, Carry On Wayward Son. Not that these band didn't get sappy, but they were good at what they did.
Notice how I left Styx off, mainly because I don't like Dennis DeYoung's overly dramatic high-school theatrical delivery, but because of you, I finally gave in at the $4.99 copy of Grand Illusion constantly staring at me at the super market, and you know it's pretty good. Mainly because they wisely split vocal duties through out the album. So Styx doesn't suck either.
This thread should be retitled "who's your least favorite Stadium Rock band".
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The high-school theatrical delivery of Dennis DeYoung was always an acquired taste and guess what, despite being big Styx fan I was never a huge fan of Dennis DeYoung as a vocalist. It was he as the group's leader that steered them into a more pop/rock commercial direction, but around the mid 1970s his song-writing was right on the ball and he was responsible for some of the bands best ever material, especially his grandiose stuff. What made Styx great though, was the creative loggerheads that the band members had. Dennis DeYoung was heavily focused on a threatrical/pomp rock style sound, whilst Tommy Shaw was a straight-up melodic hard rock man and provided a fantastic contrast to Dennis DeYoung and this was even more impressive, as his material kept itself firmly within the boundaries of the Styx style. He was always my favourite member of the band as well. Add into that the bands third vocalist James Young who was an out and out hard rocker and knew a great riff when he plucked one. He also had one of the most interesting voices around, such a pity that he never sang on more than one or two songs on an album.