STYX — Kilroy Was Here

MetalMusicArchives.com — the ultimate metal music online community, from the creators of progarchives.com

STYX - Kilroy Was Here cover
3.31 | 11 ratings | 1 review
Buy this album from MMA partners

Album · 1983

Filed under Non-Metal
By STYX

Tracklist

1. Mr. Roboto (5:28)
2. Cold War (4:27)
3. Don't Let It End (4:56)
4. High Time (4:33)
5. Heavy Metal Poisoning (4:57)
6. Just Get Through This Night (6:06)
7. Double Life (3:46)
8. Haven't We Been Here Before (4:06)
9. Don't Let It End (Reprise) (2:22)

Total Time 40:41

Line-up/Musicians

- Dennis DeYoung / keyboards, vocals as Kilroy
- Chuck Panozzo / bass, vocals as Lt. Vanish
- John Panozzo / drums, vocals as Colonel Hyde
- Tommy Shaw / guitar, vocals as Jonathan Chance
- James Young / guitar, vocals as Dr. Righteous

- Dan Barber / horn
- Steve Eisen / saxophone
- Mike Halpin / horn
- Michael Mossman / horn
- Mark Ohlson / horn

About this release

February 28, 1983
A&M

Thanks to Lynx33 for the addition and Unitron for the updates

Buy STYX - KILROY WAS HERE music

More places to buy metal & STYX music

STYX KILROY WAS HERE reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

Warthur
Mr. Roboto might have been the hit single, but the rest of this concept album resembles the style that Styx used on Paradise Theatre with a somewhat bigger synthpop influence. They don't go full synthpop, mind - just like they didn't really go full prog on The Grand Illusion - which makes Roboto a bit uncharacteristic of the rest of the album, which is a shame because it's an undeniably catchy song. (Though it's rather unfortunate that the droids on the album cover or in the music video look like racist caricatures.)

The really big shift here is that whilst Paradise Theatre's concept was fairly restrained and sober - a state-of-the-nation look at America at the end of the 1970s through the allegorical lens of the rise and fall of a legendary concert venue - Kilroy's story is absolutely goofy. "Rock opera about a dystopia where music is banned" is very, very well-worn territory by this point; Rush got the idea out of their system on one side of 2112, Zappa stretched the concept to 3 LPs in the Joe's Garage series (but wasn't really focusing on the story that much, if at all), Dream Theater would base The Astonishing around it and that Queen jukebox musical uses the concept too.

Styx may well have been beating Queen and Dream Theater to the punch here, but Rush and Zappa had told this story before and done it better, and had done it not that long before Styx did it. Sure, the subject matter probably felt more immediate to Styx due to Christian groups objecting to Snowblind from Paradise Theatre, but even so it feels like they don't really have much to say about this concept which hadn't been said better by others, and DeYoung's quasi-Messianic posing as Kilroy is unquestionably cheesy.

If you like Styx's brand of cheesiness, that's not necessarily a problem, especially if the idea of a substantially more synth-focused take on Paradise Theatre appeals to you. If you fell in love with the sound of The Grand Illusion or Pieces of Eight, I can see why this album might bug you. I like it, but equally it clearly marks the point where the band's sound has strayed so far from their prog-adjacent hard rock roots that it's no surprise that they needed to spend the rest of the 1980s taking a break from being Styx after this.

Members reviews

No STYX KILROY WAS HERE reviews posted by members yet.

Ratings only

  • Daniel Wallace
  • GWLHM76
  • stefanbedna
  • Bojanthebest
  • Necrotica
  • Losimba
  • aglasshouse
  • Unitron
  • sauromat
  • Lynx33

Write/edit review

You must be logged in to write or edit review

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us