Artist: Stryper
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2009
Runtime: 45.46
Rating: 4/5
Stryper’s new album picks up the story from their comeback record “Reborn”, which came out two years ago. Even though “Murder By Pride” is first and foremost a record that satisfies the musical tastes of the band’s loyal followers, it’s different from its predecessor. Mostly it’s more “loosened up” and varied in places. Of course, the glory years of 20 years ago are long gone; we’re dealing with a different production and a different approach. Compared to “Reborn”, “Murder By Pride” serves up an even rawer, more direct production.
Still, Stryper are among that handful of comeback bands that have successfully worked modern production tricks into a classic melodic hard rock framework. That means the guys haven’t lost their heads over “newfangled stuff”, the way it happened on the recent Kingdom Come, Europe or Hardline records. That’s why Stryper stay relevant and interesting with the new album even to fans of their older records.
The first favorite on the new album is, of course, Michael Sweet’s excellent vocals. They’re versatile, front and center, make full use of anthemic melodies and emphasis in the choruses, and carry their power effectively from the mid-range up to the highest registers and back again. Interestingly, the record only really starts to smell like classic melodic hard rock with the Boston cover Peace Of Mind. And it’s no ordinary cover. It’s polished from head to toe. The band has successfully decoded the original’s demanding multi-part vocal harmonies, and Sweet even managed to get Tom Scholz himself interested in the cover. He shows up on the track as a guest musician. The three-part harmonies between the solo and the final chorus, which the original is famous for, and which are in many ways the whole point of the pioneering AOR rockers Boston, sound great. Alive is an excellent ballad. Barely three and a half minutes long, with a Beatles-style verse and a proper chorus that recalls the roots of the eighties.
Stryper faithfully put melodic cohesion first throughout, staying true to a traditional melodic hard rock design. They dress their songs up with three-part guitar harmonies that nod to the tradition of past albums (e.g. The Plan). The follow-up with the title track keeps the album interesting too. Murder By Pride is the moment on the record that keeps the band’s strongest bond with the melodic hard rock heritage, and, in the eyes of old-school devotees, it would have been a much bolder choice for the album opener than Eclipse Of The Son. The latter, with its direct, mildly punk-leaning verse, is definitely one of the detours on the album, but the chorus puts it back on proper hard rock rails. The hard-hitting ballad I Believe, with its perfectly executed multi-part vocal harmonies in the chorus, even chases the blueprint of British melodic hard rock and brings another great moment to this album. We can stay on the same frequency, since Run In You carries on the energy of the previous track. Even though we’ve reached the point where the album mellows out, what keeps it from sliding into unoriginal rehashing of the rehashed is Sweet’s excellent vocals, which do their job with a perfect ten across the whole record. Love Is Why, alongside the title track, is another moment that will thrill the band’s old die-hards, though the spotlight is stolen by a beautifully polished melodic chorus. The maturity in the songwriting is summed up in the closer Everything, where the band masterfully weaves a dramatic atmosphere through a melodically compatible verse – pre-chorus – chorus sequence. And the fitting choice for building up drama toward the end of the album, which brings a moment of greater noisiness, is My Love (I Always Show), whose directness once again recalls the golden eighties. The contrast between the dramatic verse and the switch to a Cheap Trick-style flirty rock n’ roll chorus works a treat.
All in all, this is an album that offers plenty of variety, and with it Stryper confirm that they remain credible, inspired keepers of the rich legacy of the eighties, and that they don’t need to “reinvent” their style and sound to grab attention in new times. “Murder By Pride” is the expected follow-up to “Reborn”. Maybe not quite as cohesive a melodic hard rock album, but the mild detours on a few tracks are more than welcome here, because they let the band say without mincing words that the new album is different, yet still a 100% Stryper hard rock album!
Lineup
Michael Sweet – vocals, guitar
Oz Fox – guitar
Tracy Ferrie – bass guitar
Robert Sweet – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Tom Scholz – guitar on track no. 3.
Production
Michael Sweet & Danny Bernini
Track list
1. Eclipse Of The Son
2. 4 Leaf Clover
3. Peace Of Mind
4. Alive
5. The Plan
6. Murder By Pride
7. I Believe
8. Run In You
9. Love Is Why
10. Mercy Over Blame
11. Everything
12. My Love (I’ll Always Show)
