Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: September 4, 2020
Production: Michael Sweet
Album length: 46.33 min
Genre: (Christian) Heavy Metal
Rating: 9.0/10
Who was the one whose wounds healed the (sinful) Christian world? The biblical martyr of all martyrs, Isaiah. And he pops up in connection with the word Stryper. Well, if we’re being exact, it’s more the other way around. That band logo, with the “Isiah 53.3” tag stuck on it (no, that’s not a frequency for your favorite radio broadcasts of Sunday mass), is a little “suspicious” and has been kicking around since 1983, when the band was formed. Stryper? What’s that supposed to be? Basically Jesus covered in bodily scars after Pontius Pilate had him flogged, fairly or unfairly (apologies – I wasn’t there) Add a wasp-like warning getup in a combo of black leather and spandex and yellow stripes (instead of those Jesus scars) and you’ve won. Because what you’ve become is a Christian heavy metal band that will be the first of its kind to break through commercially and, by 2020, sell over ten million studio albums. What’s more, it’s estimated that two-thirds of those albums were bought by non-Christians. What does that mean? That a pretty good chunk of the world’s population listens to Stryper, people for whom the lyrics are probably pretty awful. So? The music still beats the costumes, the iconography and the preachy message value of the poetry in question.
The new Stryper. Anyone who knows them knows a bit of the Bible too, the New Testament in particular. It’s automatic. Crazy how time flies. The band, which will soon be hitting its fourth decade, with its creatively inexhaustible boss (singer, guitarist, main songwriter, arranger and producer Michael Sweet) at the helm of the command deck, keeps on defying the odds. Two and a half years ago they put out “God Damn Evil” (2018), which the music retail chain Walmart flagged as controversial (because of the title) and refused to distribute or sell. Whether or not the new album stirs up controversy again doesn’t matter, because only the music counts. And “Even the Devil Believes” is once again an excellent studio achievement from this long-lived Christian, melodic metal outfit.
Michael Sweet is a truly incredible musician. Last October he dropped a fantastic solo studio album, “Ten”, and that creative drive and freshness doesn’t leave him while the new Stryper album is coming together either. The kicker is that the run of albums from the band’s last decade is truly top-notch, while Sweet is constantly involved in other musical projects too and on top of that keeps putting out regular albums as a solo artist.
The album? Opener Blood From Above is barely a little over three minutes long. Sweet, that incredible basher, obviously wanted to get one of the fastest songs of Stryper’s career out of his system. It comes with an outstanding metal frenzy of whinnying guitar phrases, and the song is “peppered” from start to finish with a ton of ear-splitting screams from Michael Sweet, who, for his age, is not only developing remarkable vocal punch but still hits extreme vocal heights, up toward the fifth octave. No wonder Scholz invited him to join Boston.
Right after that, things “settle” into their expected place, thanks to “Make Love Great Again”, which is one of the album’s most distinctive songs. It gets under your skin immediately. It’s got an incredibly grabby chorus that works the second you hear it. A true antipode to the shockingly aggressive opening of the album.
Sweet and company have always had an incredible knack for shaping musicality. It keeps igniting above all at those points where the band sets up an insanely aggressive metal riff and crosses it with an ultra-catchy form of musical melodies, as in one of the album’s best songs, Divider. It’s right in these moments of the new album that the quartet’s outstanding songwriting power shows, backed by giant mileage, experience and routine.
An additional element that boosts the feeling of freshness and artistic rejuvenation is the contribution of new bassist Perry Richardson (Firehouse). The guy’s bass is cranked up to the max and finds its way brilliantly in a constantly, actively exploring business of shaping musically vibrant bass lines, which deepens the contrast in the mix of the sonic picture. The bass digs and rips intensely across the whole album. It shines in the transitions, where under the chord phrasing it creates extra musical lines and so strengthens the mood. Above all, it turns venomously rattly and glaring in the faster spots, like the wake-up call Invitation Only, into which the band very deftly worked an ornament that sounds like a Moog. Besides the ballad-leaning (mildly Bon Jovi-ish) This I Pray, that’s the other song with theatrical ornamental seasoning over the phrasing, done in double-third harmonies. The contrast with the previous album is obvious. John O’Boyle filled in on bass there, because Richardson, who had only just joined at the time, had to skip the recording because of other obligations.
It’s in the band’s nature to dose out songs with a deft sprinkle of choir melodies. That skill isn’t lacking on the album either, and “Even the Devil Believes” is dosed once again with the expected measure of bombastic grabbiness. The faster, more accelerated spots, like the opener Blood From Above, plus Do Unto Others (verse), graced by an outstanding guitar-solo duel between Oz Fox and Michael Sweet, and especially the closer Middle Finger Messiah, owe their inspiration to old-school Judas Priest phrasing. Musically, Sweet of course leans on the evergreen legacy of that kind of mastery from the legendary Queen. A combination that has always lit Stryper up. And this time is no different.
One thing is for sure! When Stryper put out an album, they simply can’t make a mistake. Every one of their albums is a work of outstanding perfection. A work of exceptional piled-up penetrating punch, glaring metal flashes, pompous ultra-musical catchiness, brilliant creative variety and songwriting insight, which guarantees top-notch dynamics and pompous drama theater. Listening to an album like this, you simply tell yourself it can’t get any better. Of course it can, but one thing is certain. Fans of the band will be thrilled again, and so will everyone who bets on the effective combination of the basic songwriting traits described a moment ago, which is indispensable for reaching not just quality but masterpiece level. And “Even the Devil Believes” is nothing less than a new Stryper masterpiece.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Blood From Above
2. Make Love Great Again
3. Let Him In
4. Do Unto Others
5. Even The Devil Believes
6. How To Fly
7. Divider
8. This I Pray
9. Invitation Only
10. For God & Rock’n’Roll
11. Middle Finger Messiah
Lineup:
Michael Sweet – vocals, guitar
Oz Fox – guitar
Perry Richardson – bass guitar, backing vocals
Robert Sweet – drums
Guest musicians:
Paul McNamara – Hammond, keyboards, Moog
Keith Pittman – backing vocals
