Strypers history dates back some 17 years. In that period of time they achieved greater success than any other christian band ever. I`ve summarized their history from their beginning until this years Cornerstone festival.
Originally known as Roxx Regime, the band featured Michael Sweet on vocals and guitar, Robert Sweet on drums, Timothy Gaines playing bass and Oz Fox on rythm and lead guitar.
They built up a carefully constructed image and marketing strategy, they subsequently changed their name to STRYPER and after Robert got an idea about their clothes, the band dressed in matching yellow and black outfits. Robert also came up with the acronym they have used ever since:
Salvation
Through
Redemtion
Yielding
Peace
Encouragement (and)
Righteousness.
They were now a band with a mission to spread the word of God through rock music, especially after their friend Kenny Metcalf witnessed about Jesus Christ and the salvation through Christ.
After signing to Enigma Records, they attracted widespread media attention which generally focused on the "novelty" factor of their beliefs. A debut mini-album, "The Yellow And Black Attack", featured standard hard rock, with simple lyrics and high pitched harmonies, while live shows climaxed with the band throwing bibles into the audience. In 1985 they released their first full lenght album, "Soldiers under command", which soon became a best seller. By their third album they had build up a loyal army of fans and the excellently-produced melodic rock and metal.
"To Hell With The Devil" was released in 1986 and was their most successfull album so far. Their success reached new heights with a massive world tour and more than two million records sold. They got frequently airplay and after some arguing they got their videos shown on MTV, with enormous response. At this time Tim left the band and was replaced by Matt Hurich. To complicate things even more it was`nt Matt who played bass on the record either, but a session player named Brad Cobb.
"In God We Trust" saw the band mellow with more emphasis on pop-rock. The album was to say the least over-produced, something the guys admitted themselves. Again the bass playing on the record was given to Brad Cobb. The album was a commercial disappointment, failing to build on the success of the previous release. It did reach number 32, but only stayed on the Billboard chart for five weeks. The band took time off for a radical re-think, before entering the studio again.
"Against The Law" emerged in 1990, marking a return to a more aggressive style. The yellow and black stage costumes had been abandoned and the lyrics were considerably less evangelical. This to the unliking of some of the bandmembers. In my opinion musically this is their best album by far. Lyrically though, I find it dissapointing. I clearly prefer the other albums lyrically because they were more straight to the point concerning their chritian beliefs. However, by this time, most of their original fans had moved on and the album sold poorly.
When Enigma went broke in 1990 they signed to Hollywood records and made a best of album, "Cant stop the rock" was released. The record contained two new songs ("Believe" and "Cant stop the rock") and such classics as "To hell with the devil" and "Soldiers Under command".
When Michael Sweet quit in 1992 it seemed only divine intervention could rescue Stryper's career. The other boys continued some time into 1993 under the name Stryper but no records were released. They did some concerts in Europe in 1992 and 1993.
Recently they have played some shows together. Last years first annual Stryper Expo saw them playing together again after all these years. This may they did a new show at the second Stryper expo and they played the Cornerstone Festival july the 7`th. (The actual day I got married, believe it or not!)
What the future brings for Stryper nobody knows. My hope for the future is of course an imminent reunion and a reunion - concert in Norway.
