Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Stryper
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2015
Duration: 52:28
Rating: 4.5/5
»Strike while the iron is hot!« is a saying Stryper know more than well. The new studio album »Fallen« is the band’s ninth proper studio album overall and the fourth since they reactivated in 2005. »No More Hell To Pay« counts as a great predecessor and, at the same time, as the heaviest and darkest album of the band’s entire career. With »No More Hell To Pay« the lineup caught real creative working chemistry, and »Fallen« keeps it going just as successfully.
Bandleader, frontman and guitarist Michael Sweet has turned into an absolute workaholic over the past two years. In 2013 he put out no fewer than two albums with Stryper (»Second Coming«, »No More Herll To Pay«), played a pile of shows around the globe with Stryper in 2013 and 2014 (hence the live Stryper album in 2014), released a new solo studio album in 2014, and this January dropped a superb album from his joint project with George Lynch, »Only To Rise«. And all that activity spilled over once more into a rejuvenated Stryper this February! So the brothers Michael and Robert Sweet (drums), Oz Fox (guitar) and Tim Gaines (bass) headed back to their famous Spirithouse Recording studio in Northampton, Massachusetts, where, with Michael Sweet wielding the producer’s baton and a real team vibe in the air, they wrote and recorded the material for »Fallen« together.
Like I said, »Fallen« keeps, and even builds on, all the sharpness and serious hardness, really the metallic fury, of its predecessor »No More Hell To Pay«, while radiating incredible creative freshness at the same time! Just look at the album opener, Yahweh, which came about in collaboration with Clint Lowery (Sevendust, Call Me No One) and was inspired, for Sweet, by the film »The Last Temptation of Christ«. Picture a bristling opening guitar riff in the verse, a build in the pre-chorus, and then a catchy chorus melody sung by a church mixed choir. Michael Sweet shows right from the start how well his voice has held up even in his later years. Distinctive and dominant in every vocal register, explosive. In this mature phase of his career, Michael also adds a bigger or smaller dose of throatiness, or rasp, to the verses, which amps up his passionate approach. The title track keeps that outstanding chorus melodiousness too, really instant catchiness. Sweet cranks up the vocal explosiveness even more, bordering on theatrical screaming. The dark guitar riff deepens the drama of the »cast down« angel, Lucifer, hurled from heaven into hell. Fallen and Let There Be Light (near the end of the album) share a very similar opening guitar riff and develop in a similar way compositionally. The hardness doesn’t let up through the mid-tempo Pride (followed by yet another phenomenal chorus melody with Sweet’s trademark vocal explosiveness), which deals lyrically with how pride, in its extremes, is actually harmful to harmony and equality among different people.
Love You Like I Do is one of the songs that definitely stand out for their excellent musical payoff. A killer track packaged head to toe, dressed up in classic rock makeup, and a great warm-up for the album’s calmer moment, the ballad All Over Again, where Stryper even breathe in some Beatles-like elegance, and the acoustic song is subtly adorned not only with guitar harmonies in thirds but with orchestrations too. If any song does, All Over Again lays out most vividly how the band has matured over 30 years of defiance on the scene. It’s one of the most beautiful compositions on the album. Stryper also decided to stick a Black Sabbath cover on the album, After Forever. »Stryper-ized« doesn’t really surprise anyone, since the band is known for having recorded and released plenty of covers of famous rock and metal acts over the years. Funny thing. A Christian-white band reeking of »holy water« reworks a song by the galaxy’s first rock antichrists. Maybe an unnecessary move, but obviously a hell of a fun one for the band.
»Fallen« keeps up the band’s tremendous creativity. Every one of the compositions boasts polished arrangements. Through them the band effectively builds graduated moods, with the drama peaking in a chorus crescendo that crawls into your ear in a heartbeat. All in one. With instrumental middle sections where Sweet and Fox once again serve up more than impressive back-and-forth shared solos. So Stryper are not short on dynamite at their age. »Fallen« bursts with quality. Like I said. Fallen keeps up and nurtures a superb blend of vampire-revived metal crunch and musical catchiness, carried over from its predecessor »No More Hell To Pay«. Reborn Stryper, armed with an excellent new studio manifesto in »Fallen«, brimming with fresh creativity and the idea-packed variety of the band’s trademark catalog, refuse to ease up and refuse to give in. »Fallen« is an album played with a ton of passion that lifts you up and charges you with energy!
Lineup
Michael Sweet – vocals, guitar
Oz Fox – guitar, backing vocals
Timothy Gaines – bass, backing vocals
Robert Sweet – drums
Production
Michael Sweet
Track list
01. Yahweh
02. Fallen
03. Pride
04. Big Screen Lies
05. Heaven
06. Love You Like I Do
07. All Over Again
08. After Forever (Black Sabbath cover)
09. Till I Get What I Need
10. Let There Be Light
11. The Calling
12. King Of Kings
