“Fallen”, the new album from legendary hardrock  Stryper, will be released worldwide on Friday, October 16. The CD was tracked at SpiritHouse Recording Studios in Northampton, Massachusetts and will include a cover version of the Black Sabbath classic ‘After Forever’.

The first song from “Fallen”, ‘Yahweh’, which was co-written by Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery, will be made available the week of July 6.

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”. Stryper frontman Michael Sweet says: ‘We sent Stanis the concept about Lucifer being cast out of heaven and he sent us this amazing illustration, capturing the original idea perfectly. We’re excited to be able to finally show all of you!’

Regarding the musical direction of the new Stryper material, Sweet said: ‘It’s gonna be… I don’t wanna scare any fans away or anything, but it’s gonna be the heaviest album we’ve done. Not in the sense that it’s gonna be thrash metal or anything like that. It’s definitely got a little bit of a darker vibe to it lyrically and musically. Some of the songs are tuned down — not like the modern dropped B stuff; I’m talking like the E dropped to D, ‘Unchained’ Van Halen kind of stuff. And it’s just got a heavy sound to it. And I think when people hear it, in a good way, they’re gonna go, ‘That’s Stryper? What?’ I think they’re gonna be shocked.’

Other songtitles set to appear on “Fallen” include ‘Let There Be Light’, ‘Big Screen Lies’ and the title track.

The new studio album will be the follow-up to “No More Hell to Pay” which was released on November 1st 2013  in Europe and November 5th 2013 in North America via Frontiers Records. The effort was made available in two formats — standard CD and deluxe digipak featuring exclusive video content. Produced by Stryper guitarist/vocalist Michael Sweet himself, the set features some of Stryper‘s strongest and heaviest material ever.

To read our review for “No More Hell To Pay” click here.

In other news, Ulterium Records recently announced the release of a limited double gatefold vinyl edition of the Stryper live album “Live at the Whisky”. A deal was inked with Frontiers Records and the European release date is set to August 7th. The edition is strictly limited to 300 copies worldwide.

The vinyl edition features new artwork created by Jan Yrlund of Darkgrove Design. Artwork and tracklist can be seen here.

Upcoming Shows:
Sept. 12 – House of Blues, Anaheim, CA, US