Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: September 13, 2024
Production: Michael Sweet
Album length: 45.55 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 9.0/10
Stryper, the legends, an iconic eighties band loyal since day one to their ‘Christian-tinged’ brand of metal, are probably the only group that has weathered every storm and is still going non-stop, at full power, in 2024. And with a lineup that’s three-quarters identical to the original. Leading the charge is the main driving engine: Michael Sweet, an incredibly refined composer, arranger, producer, guitarist and, above all, a commanding frontman who is still razor-sharp and youthfully creative in his songwriting at the ‘tender’ age of sixty! It’s like Stryper’s musical career has barely begun.
Less than two years after the release of »The Final Battle« (2022, RockLine review), Stryper have put together another dozen outstanding heavy metal anthems that grab you one after another on their latest outing, »When We Were Kings«. The new album is noticeably darker than its predecessor, and moodier than the string of other post-millennium efforts from the band, which are otherwise marked by an incredible consistency in quality, with superlatives never in short supply.
A powerful phrase with a punchy, hard-hitting kick that grabs you instantly leads each song into an ultra-catchy, melodic chorus that hooks you with an even higher level of invasive grip. Sweet’s recipe for conjuring up pomp and bombast remains a stroke of genius of its own kind. Drama theater at its peak! At every step of the new album’s running time. This is nothing new for Stryper, but it’s a quality standard that, given the proven perfection of the songwriting and production, takes your breath away every single time. The albums follow one another at relatively short intervals, and each one is a brilliant achievement in its own right.
The soloing from Fox and Sweet, the three-part harmonies and other embellishments in the passages put the cherry on top of the whole spectacle. Front and center stays Sweet’s instantly recognizable vocal, which shows no wear at all with age and can still hit those incredible vocal heights while keeping all its expressive power (the screams in the title track are downright breathtaking). In the choruses the vocals are harmonized and backed by multiple vocal lines, all of them Sweet’s own, and that element belongs straight in a textbook on getting the maximum bombast out of creating highly vibrant atmospheres.
The riffs are not to be overlooked. The opening one in End Of Days is downright devastating, just like the message of the song itself. It’s over. We all know it. Let’s wait and stare into it as the world as we know it disappears! One of the definitive highlights is the phenomenal title track, set in a mid-tempo, where the atmospheric crescendo hits all the harder in the chorus itself! But right after it, Betrayed By Love and Loves Symphony take over the spotlight with their perfect, pompous choruses. The competition this time around is fierce. The brilliant Trinity, which follows those three, also belongs in the cherry-picked selection of the album, which means the middle section of the album will surely be the peak for many! Trinity is a mini epic suite, built from top-notch shifts in mood and, as always, yet another superbly crafted chorus, which the crowd will have no trouble joining in on at upcoming Stryper shows (sadly only in North America – the band is definitely not booking Europe). As far as grabbing power goes, Grateful also has to be singled out. A mid-tempo song that speaks with predictable musical rhetoric, but Sweet’s vocal melody is once again a treat of its own kind that lifts the song to a level of excellence. The second-to-last track, Divided By Design, owes a bit of inspiration in its lead guitar phrase to the ‘Precambrian’ discoveries of Black Sabbath – of course, here too Stryper are absolutely in control, keeping the charge of melodic pomp high! The fast and furious Imperfect World closes the album, bringing back that high-octane burn of firing on all cylinders, which ties the grand finale to the opening blast! A track cunningly placed at the end that makes you hit ‘repeat’ on the player (for the whole album)!
Sweet and his crew remain musical aces of their own kind. Even on the group’s latest studio album, which keeps up an inspired, high-yield variety of ideas and delivers everything you’d expect from Stryper. The songs unfold from minor keys and the album comes across as mostly melancholic, which adds to the feeling that it’s darker than its predecessors, and in metal that only ever feels good. Especially in combination with such a brilliant vocal performance as the one the one-of-a-kind Michael Sweet delivers! Few bands keep shaking out albums in their golden years that thrill as consistently as Stryper do. They could easily coast on their old eighties glory and tour with their ironclad catalog of hits, which is what keeps many of their generational peers’ heads above water in 2024, and who, as we’ve concluded, could have stopped making albums more than 20 years ago. But with Stryper it’s not like that. This band neither knows how nor is able to disappoint. The new, superb album »When We Were Kings« is another piece of proof that justifies all the flattering labels in this review essay, and let’s hope it stays that way with Stryper for many years to come.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. End Of Days
2. Unforgivable
3. When We Were Kings
4. Betrayed By Love
5. Loves Symphony
6. Trinity
7. Rhyme Of Time
8. Raptured
9. Grateful
10. Divided By Design
11. Imperfect World
Lineup:
Michael Sweet – vocals, rhythm guitar
Robert Sweet – drums, percussion
Oz Fox – vocals, rhythm and lead guitar
Perry Richardson – bass guitar, backing vocals
