I know I’ll probably get crucified for choosing to cover this record, but that’s my cross to bear…
Let’s go ahead and address the 400-pound gorilla in the room so that those of you who are already laughing / complaining can get it out of the way: To most underground metalheads these days, Stryper is doubly uncool. They’re a Christian hard rock / sometime metal band from Ye Olden Days, the first one of any note, one whose peak popularity came in the poodle-haired 80s, when they rode their infamous bumblebee outfits to minor mainstream acclaim alongside other Sunset Strippers like Ratt and Motley Crue. Then as now, they tempered Oz Fox’s shred and Michael Sweet’s scream with God-touting testimonials that trod the line between personal praise and proselytizing. In their best moments, they were a solid metal band who (like most) saddled themselves with a ridiculous image and some unsubtle lyrics about their chosen path, and regrettably, in their worst, they were hair-metal schlock about Jesus – their biggest MTV hit, 1986’s piano ballad “Honestly,” is literally god-awful.
But now, decades later, with the original line-up intact once more, No More Hell To Pay may well be Stryper’s best moment. It’s one that sees this reunited band of believers amplifying their good qualities and largely avoiding the various pitfalls that hampered earlier efforts.
Sure, this is still lily-white trad metal at its heaviest, and it’s positively hard rock in most spots, but it’s a surprisingly strong and catchy effort from a band that no one expected to release a record this strong in 2013. (And by that I mean “a band that I certainly didn’t expect to.”)
Title track and first single “No More Hell To Pay” is classic Stryper, with a harmonized riff and soaring vocals that hark back to To Hell With The Devil, culminating in the expected sing-along chorus about the band’s unflagging devotion to their cause. Fox and Sweet can still rip on their guitars, and Michael’s voice shows only the slightest wear in some of the higher registers, which is hardly a bad thing or unexpected given how insanely high some of his parts have always been. He even pulls off a slightly harsher, thrashier style on the verses of the retrospective “Legacy,” which fittingly leads into “Marching Into Battle,” a thirty-year-old song from their club days that they finally recorded. The cover of the Doobie Brothers’ “Jesus Is Just Alright” is fitting, performed well, and certainly light-years ahead of the band’s early-90s decimation of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Shining Star.” The closest Stryper c. 2013 comes to the syrupy balladry that derailed their best records is “The One,” No More Hell To Pay’s lightest moment. Still, it’s a listenable effort, which puts it well ahead of the likes of “Honestly” and “All Of Me,” and it’s certainly buoyed by the solid riff-rock that bookends it.
If metal is all about standing up for what you believe in and being yourself in the face of expected norms and opposition from the masses, then in that way, at least, if not always musically, Stryper is as metal as any corpse-painted and blast-beating miscreant. Their decision to preach their faith to devotees of the Devil’s music has made them unpopular on both sides of the line – they were famously denounced by Christians and rockers alike in their heyday. But yet they soldier on, tossing Bibles into the giant crowd of life, and I guess God bless ‘em for it. If you’ve never cared about what they do, you still won’t, but if you liked Soldiers Under Command or To Hell With The Devil, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that there’s still a bit of sting left in these old bumblebees.
