Tommy Shaw said Styx are almost finished with their next album and will be "ready to mix before you know it."

The guitarist and singer made the comments in an interview with the Ted Nugent Spirit Campfire show, detailing each band member's individual progress on the record, which follows 2017's The Mission.

"We've got all the drums, we've got all the basses [recorded]," he said. "I think I've done all my guitars. I've done most of my vocals. ... We were writing and writing and writing. I got to the end of it. I had this other song. I was just burnt out. I was, like, 'I can't finish this song.' So I kind half-assed finished it. So I've gotta go in and do it right."

Shaw noted that the final tracking comes down to keyboardist and singer Lawrence Gowan and guitarist James Young: "Lawrence has already done a lot of his stuff. There are a couple of new songs that came around since we were all together. So we just have to flush all that out. Really, it's just Lawrence. And James Young is coming. He's gonna be here for however long it takes to get his solos and his vocals done. Who's left? That just leaves Lawrence."

Styx appear to have made significant progress on the record in recent months. In May, drummer Todd Sucherman admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic halted their work on the project. As Blabbermouth notes, he recently told Audio Ink Radio that their new songs touch on the band's "progressive side with always a big, heavy emphasis on melody and lyrics."

In July, Shaw played a classic Styx prog piece, "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)," with Cleveland's Contemporary Youth Orchestra in a socially distanced format.

 

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