Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Stryper
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2014
Length: 75:14
Rating: 4/5
Let’s say that, according to one hypothesis, Christian rock came about so that none of America’s puritans with tentacles in the country’s ruling structures would keep meddling with rockers over the supposedly bad influence of their truth-telling lyrics on minors, since the »parental advisory« sticker soon came into fashion. The memory of the witch hunt against W.A.S.P., Judas Priest and so on is still very much alive. However you slice it, the invention of Christian rock is a weird thing. It’s hard to believe a distorted guitar riff can go hand in hand with bowing down to the heavenly Lord. But in the USA (sadly, often) anything is possible. Considering that the Christian rock movement produced a whole bunch of bands with great songwriting talent, it has given history a pile of excellent albums, and that can’t go overlooked any longer.
If we step away from the philosophizing in the paragraph above, we run into the fact that behind the name Stryper stands one of the most prominent representatives of Christian rock on the planet, which, like all the others, got swallowed up by the grunge movement in the nineties. Stryper came back from the dead in 2005 with the album Reborn, and especially with the more than solid »Murder by Pride« (2009). In 2011 came the less important »The Covering«, a compilation of covers, and last year they released »Second Coming« in the first half of the year, on which they re-recorded a string of classics from the golden eighties of their career. In the second half of the same year came the excellent new studio album »No More Hell To Pay«, which is both the darkest and the heaviest album of their career. The new record even climbed onto Billboard’s chart of best-selling albums, repeating the success of »To Hell With The Devil«, which came out way back in 1986.
Stryper, who this year ran through a slew of summer festivals across Europe, already played a series of shows across the USA last October. One of them was at the famous club Whiskey A Go Go, which was sold out when they hit the stage. Packed to the last corner. The band took advantage of the situation and recorded the show. The whole thing. With multiple cameras, too. So here we have the band’s new live release, which comes packaged as both a CD and a DVD.
Stryper are in their original lineup: brothers Michael (guitar, vocals) and Robert Sweet (drums), bassist Tim Gaines and guitarist Oz Fox. Anyone who caught them somewhere in Europe this year knows these guys put on one hell of a live spectacle, one you can’t fault in the slightest, and that they’re in excellent live form. If we compare the set lists for Europe and the USA on the very same tour, we Europeans got the short end of the stick this time. The European set lists had two covers per night and, say, the ballad Honestly. »Live At Whiskey«, from the American leg, has no sugary »ballads«, and it doesn’t eat up space with cliché covers like Breaking the Law (Judas Priest) or Shout it Out Loud (Kiss) either. Instead it focuses strictly on the most striking moments of Stryper’s career. The albums »Murder By Pride« (2009) and »Reborn« (2005) are left out, which was to be expected. The band put together an excellent set list made up almost entirely of classics, and strung a bunch of surprises through it, like the song from the EP »The Yellow And Black Attack« (1984) called You Know What To Do. Stryper also spiced up the set with The Rock That Makes Me Roll and Always There For You, which is even the only song taken from the album »In God We Trust« (1988). All three of those songs dropped out of the European set lists.
There are 16 songs and 75 minutes of concert. The breaks between songs are also cut down as much as possible. So one CD is enough, and the other disc is reserved for the DVD, which has, besides the entire film of the show at the club Whisley A Go Go, the videos for the new songs Sympathy and No More Hell To Pay, as well as an interview with the band. In front of me are 16 mp3 files, and I have to say they sound excellent! What’s especially fascinating is how well Oz Fox and Tim Gaines handle the backing vocals, which is hugely important for faithfully re-creating the sound of the studio originals in a live setting. The band plays great. Michael Sweet keeps his outstanding vocal qualities. He’s strong, explosive and commanding in every register he tackles, while the band plays at full throttle the whole way through and doesn’t rein itself in at all. The two guitarists’ harmonies in thirds are remarkably tight and precise, Robert Sweet is a proper drumming beast, and his snare »hurts« right out of the mix! The tracks from the new album »No More Hell To Pay« work great alongside the classics. You could say the set list is a mix of the »Second Coming« release and the new album »No More Hell To Pay«.
After »Seven Weeks: Live in America«, released in 2004, this is the band’s second officially released live document, and luckily it’s on Frontiers Records, so it’s available on the European market too. The band shows off outstanding live form on it, and the repertoire on offer, even though we’re talking about a live document, is a welcome starting point for anyone who doesn’t know the band yet, since »Live At Whiskey« will take them into the musical world of Stryper in a thoroughly credible way.
Lineup
Michael Sweet – vocals, guitar
Oz Fox – guitar, backing vocals
Tim Gaines – bass guitar, backing vocals
Robert Sweet – drums
Production
Michael Sweet
Track list
CD:
1. Legacy
2. Marching Into Battle
3. You Know What To Do
4. Loud N’ Clear
5. Reach Out
6. Calling On You
7. Free
8. More Than A Man
9. The Rock That Makes Me Roll
10. No More Hell To Pay
11. Jesus Is Just Alright
12. Always There For You
13. All For One
14. The Way
15. To Hell With The Devil
16. Soldiers Under Command.
DVD:
1. Legacy
2. Marching Into Battle
3. You Know What To Do
4. Loud N’ Clear
5. Reach Out
6. Calling On You
7. Free
8. More Than A Man
9. The Rock That Makes Me Roll
10. No More Hell To Pay
11. Jesus Is Just Alright
12. Always There For You
13. All For One
14. The Way
15. To Hell With The Devil
16. Soldiers Under Command
– No More Hell To Pay (Videoclip)
– Sympathy (Videoclip)
– Nashville All Access (Interview)
