Welcome to the meandering musical insights of Aaron Joy (me!), formerly known as the Roman Midnight Music Blog. Here you'll find nearly 750 reviews of CDs & DVDs of rock & metal in all its variations, mainstream & indie, good & bad, U.S. & foreign. A new review every Monday.

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June 14, 2010

Stryper ~ Murder By Pride (album review) ... Eclipse of the sun!


Style: Christian, hard rock
Label: Big 3 Records
Year: 2009
Home: California

Members: Michael Sweet ~ lead vocals/guitar
Oz Fox ~ lead guitar/b. vocals
Tracy Ferrie ~ bass

Additional: Kenny Aronoff ~ drums

Guests: Tom Scholz ~ guitar

Styper was one of the first & most successful openly gay ... sorry, I mean, openly Christian heavy metal bands & became famous for their yellow & black stripped outfits & passing out Bibles at their concerts. Murder By Pride, which happens to be a great title if you contemplate it's meaning, was released on the 25th anniversary of the band & is a wonderful throwback to 1980's hair metal with a touch of modern metal. The highlights are "Eclipse Of The Sun," "Murder By Pride" & "The Plan", which could be on the radio now with their alt rock metal sound, along with "4 Leaf Clover" with the great obviously Christian chorus: "no strength in a unicorn, no luck in a 4 leaf corner, no life unless he's born". How many metal bands write about unicorns? Even Christian ones? This is a solid release, albeit a bit scary because though there's bits of modern rock this is a band that doesn't sound like they've aged a day nor want to. It doesn't help that they do the Boston cover "Peace Of Mind", featuring its author Boston founder Tom Scholz on guitar & could be right out of the Boston catalog. Actually, it would be hard to say that this wasn't Boston if you heard it. Looking a little into Stryper's bio one finds that frontman Michael Sweet is a touring member with the latest incarnation of Boston. What a surprise! Following the 80's mold that this album is in it even features the typical 80's chorus vocals & the the obligatory love ballads "Alive" & "Run In You" a la Bon Jovi, albeit I swear I've heard "Run To You" before. As to the Christian message, not so strong as one might think, but then being a Christian band doesn't mean that every song is about God. Actually, both Alice Cooper & Dave Mustaine of Megadeth are Christians ... Does this mean they'll be adding to their repertoire Boston songs? I mean, Stryper songs? There's nothing here remarkably new or even inventive for a band celebrating a fourth of a century together, or even as Christian as some other bands in the genre. But, it's a solid set of solid music & it's nice to see 80's hair bands continuing to push their music out even when that scene has come & gone & come & gone.

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