10 Perfect Albums That Broke Up The Band

Any album that ends up reaching the masses should normally be looked at as a labor of love. Since you spent months (if not years) in the studio trying to get everything to sound perfect, you’re going to make sure that whatever ends up hitting the public is one of the greatest things that you’ve ever made. While these records might have reached the perfection part, the rest of the group wouldn’t survive intact.

As much as these records might sound great, it’s only hiding the absolutely miserable sessions that were going on behind the scenes. For every great catchy single or phenomenal deep cut, these bands had to go through some really tense sessions to get there, whether that means playing the one take again and again to get it just right or waiting hours until finding the right groove.

Even though most people would celebrate once these were done with, most of the members of these acts ended up going their separate ways shortly after the album wrapped, either because they couldn’t work together anymore or there was no point in even trying to continue much longer. It would make sense to make a last album if one of the members dies, but more often than not there’s a whole bunch of legal stuff that ends up bringing these acts to their knees. Every band wants a peaceful breakup, but every one of these acts thought it’d be better to say goodbye with middle fingers held high.

Even for a band that was on the charts as much as they were, the public always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Styx. While some fans may have loved the proggy sounds of albums like the Grand Illusion and sang along to tracks like Come Sail Away, the critics were never all that impressed, chalking them up as the more corporate version of what real prog acts were trying to do. Then again, the critics don't really matter in the long run. It's all about chemistry, and Kilroy Was Here was where it all hit a brick wall.

For all of the drama surrounding this album though, not much has changed from the last few albums. From the sappy ballads like Don't Let It End to the harder rock of Heavy Metal Poisoning, this is still just a decent Styx album. What really messed this one up was the mindset behind it, as Dennis DeYoung took full control of the concept and had the rest of the band write songs that fit more in line with the sci fi rock storyline that he was pitching.

There's definitely an idea for a good prog album in here, but you can tell that the rest of the band were checked out by the time it was done, going on a disastrous tour and songwriter Tommy Shaw leaving to form Damn Yankees after the whole thing was over. So in the end it wasn't even the critics bringing Styx to an end. All they needed was DeYoung's reign of terror to collapse in on itself.