‘Pride’, the new video from Stryper, can be seen below. The song is taken from the band’s new album, “Fallen”, which is released last friday (Oct. 16) via Frontiers Records. The CD was tracked at SpiritHouse Recording Studios in Northampton, Massachusetts and includes a cover version of the Black Sabbath classic ‘After Forever’.
In a recent interview with Audio Ink Radio, Stryper frontman Michael Sweet stated about the musical direction of “Fallen”: “It’s similar to the last album but a little different. We tuned the guitars down on a few more songs than on the last album. It’s a heavier vibe. I did a co-write with Clint Lowery of Sevendust on ‘Yahweh’, and that song turned out really different in a great way. We’re never going to be as heavy as Metallica, but Stryper‘s roots are tied to heavy metal. We grew up on Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and Van Halen and the Scorpions. Over the years, we ventured a short distance from that background with pop songs and ballads, which we love doing, but we like to be heavy.”
Asked if he feels Stryper has influenced other Christian hard rock and metal bands to stay true to their faith and musical vision, Sweet said: “I hope so. We’ve always been a band that’s gone out of our way to wave the flag that God is cool, and not only cool, but the Creator of all things. Aside from that, people say it’s an oxymoron to mix metal with Christian lyrics, and we’re trying to break that apart and destroy that mentality because it’s just not true. I feel God created all things, and therefore, He created music. So, it makes perfect sense to me to mix the two. It should be done more than the devil and metal being mixed, in my opinion, but for some reason, people have this thing that metal is all about the devil. It’s ridiculous.”
The cover artwork for “Fallen”, which can be seen below, was designed by Stanis Decker, who worked with Stryper on 2013’s “No More Hell To Pay”.
In other news, Ulterium Records are proud to announce the release of a limited 2LP gatefold vinyl edition of the upcoming Stryper album “Fallen”. A deal was inked with Frontiers Records and the release dates are set to November 13th for Europe and December 4th for North America. The edition is strictly limited to 1554 copies worldwide. 389 copies comes with white discs and 1165 copies with standard black discs. Read more here.
“Fallen” album review quote:
‘Usually most parents are annoyed by the volume of music coming from their offspring’s bedroom. But I have to confess that my son came downstairs to complain that I was playing this album too loud and he couldn’t get off to sleep! So turn it up to 11 as Stryper are back at the peak of awesomeness.’
To read the entire review, click here.
Tracklist:
01. Yahweh (Stream)
02. Fallen (Stream)
03. Pride
04. Big Screen Lies (Stream)
05. Heaven
06. Love You Like I Do
07. All over Again
08. After Forever (Stream)
09. Till I Get What I Need
10. Let There Be Light (Stream)
11. The Calling
12. King of Kings
Weblinks: Website / Facebook / Twitter
Video below: “Pride”
Video below: “Fallen” (EPK)