Dennis DeYoung has released his final studio album, 26 East, Vol. 2, along with a high-octane new single titled “There’s No Turning Back Time.”
The progressive mini-epic opens with clean guitar arpeggios and DeYoung’s plaintive vocals. The song builds intensity as it approaches the middle, stacking DeYoung’s vocal harmonies atop distorted power chords, sprightly keyboard riffs and a dizzying synthesizer solo.
DeYoung last previewed 26 East, Vol. 2 in May with the fiery, hard-rocking single “The Last Guitar Hero,” featuring Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. Whereas that song was a straight-ahead rocker, “There’s No Turning Back” harks back to the poppy, progressive rock of DeYoung’s Styx heyday.
You can listen to “There’s No Turning Back” below.
DeYoung released 26 East, Vol. 1 in May 2020. He named the twin albums after his childhood address in suburban Chicago, where he grew up across the street from fellow Styx cofounders Chuck and John Panozzo. The singer originally intended to release the set as one album but then realized he had enough material for two discs.
“It’s gonna be cool, I’m glad I did it,” DeYoung told UCR earlier this year when discussing 26 East, Vol. 2. ”They’re good songs, and that’s it! I’ve got a nice batch, and they’re eclectic.”
He also joked about Styx being a “fake prog band”: “We were an American rock band who used classical influences, but Styx was always at heart an American rock band. Most of the prog bands didn’t have a Marshall stack. That’s not what they were doing. But that’s who we were.”
DeYoung’s former Styx bandmates will also release their 17th studio album, Crash of the Crown, on June 18. A press release describes the LP as a “modern-day sonic chronograph of the endless regenerative cycle of the rise and fall — and rise again — of our shared human experience.”
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