Recorded at Pumpkin Studios, Chicago, Illinois; The S.H.O.P.and The Cave, Los Angeles, California; Dr CAW Recording, Northbrook, Illinois, Colorado Sound, Denver, Colorado; Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California; Seventeenth Avenue Productions, Manville, New Jersey.

CYCLORAMA is the first studio album that Styx has made without former leader/singer/keyboardist Dennis DeYoung, with whom the group acrimoniously split a few years earlier. It's also the first to include DeYoung's replacement Lawrence Gowan, whose voice is in the same general ballpark as DeYoung's but never seems imitative. Longtime singer/guitarist Tommy Shaw is the dominant presence here, and his delivery of the ostensibly group-composed songs is full of energy and commitment. The songs themselves are not far from the material Styx tackled in their '70s glory days, minus the pomp-rock touches and with a bit more of an edge. That edge is most obvious in a couple of songs that seem to be directed at DeYoung, lyrics dripping in occasionally shocking vitriol. Though the DeYoung days are seemingly gone forever, CYCLORAMA suggests that the remaining members of Styx never wanted time to stand still anyway.

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