A hard rock band, reunited a while ago, making a covers album. How original. That has never been done before…. Oh, God, how boring. That was my first thought when I heard that christian hard rockers Stryper were about to release an album full of covers. Their explanation why they’re doing it weren’t any less original. ”We want to show our fans where were coming from musically”. Really? But ok, what the heck, to listen to the album won’t kill me, so here we go. And you know what? This is actually a really good album. Most covers albums aren’t, but Stryper makes really good versions of the songs, doing justice to the originals. Besides, when you think about the band’s strong christian beliefs, it’s really funny to listen to their versions of Scorpions’ ”Blackout” (about getting so drunk that you’re blacking out), Judas Priest’s ”Breaking The Law” (unofficially about the pains of being gay), Ozzy Osbourne’s ”Over The Mountain” (about getting high), Kiss’ ”Shout It Out Loud” (about partying and being rebellious) and Black Sabbath’s ”Heaven And Hell”, Black Sabbath not being the most christian band in history.
Then there are covers of ”The Trooper” by Iron Maiden and ”Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, two bands that have been accused more than once by christians for being in league with the Dark One. This shows that Stryper, despite being true christians, don’t care about anything else than the music, no matter the subject. Their favourite songs are still their favourite songs and they are not afraid to show it. There is also a new original Stryper song on here. It’s called ”God” and it is a great song. A pretty heavy and fast track that has all the elements of a good Stryper song. Well performed, great harmonies and cool arrangements. A really good covers album, but a bit unnecessary, to be honest. An album made more for themselves than for the fans, I guess and no matter how good it is, I would rather have a new album with original songs any day.
Jon Wilmenius (7/10)
Track list:
01. SWEET – “Set Me Free”
02. SCORPIONS – “Blackout”
03. BLACK SABBATH – “Heaven and Hell”
04. UFO – “Lights Out”
05. KANSAS – “Carry On Wayward Son”
06. DEEP PURPLE – “Highway Star”
07. KISS – “Shout It Out Loud”
08. OZZY OSBOURNE – “Over The Mountain”
09. IRON MAIDEN – “The Trooper”
10. JUDAS PRIEST – “Breaking The Law”
11. VAN HALEN – “On Fire”
12. LED ZEPPELIN – “Immigrant Song”
13. God
CD & Festival reviews 