Stryper
Fallen
Frontiers Music Srl
2015
Well funnily enough Christians tend to “pollute” every possible musical genre with “goody good artists” that preach the gospel of the lord. For every promiscuous and scantily clad pop star, there will be a conservatively dressed Christian pop star that youngsters could turn to alternatively to avoid being lured and caught in the “clutches” of evil… whatever that is.
Several “Christian” Rockers have come out as atheists or what not or were revealed to be scamming and pretending to be “spiritual”, trying to get a “piece of the action” from their secular counterparts appealing straight to the repressed Christian youth… (ie As I Lay Dying etc)…
Stryper I suppose was the Iron Maiden/Judas Priest – sort of “alternative” if you wanted to steer away of “secular” rock. For almost all of their career they‘ve been, preaching the lord of god – and have been pretty damn heavy and actually almost every bit as talented as their counterparts, who used all the “satanic” imagery in a theatrical way, to cause some controversy based on the idea that no publicity is bad publicity and seeing it as an easy way to shock the public… but no, not Stryper.
Having reunited some years ago, releasing some new albums, a covers and a re-recorded album of some of their best known song as well as a live performance, the band is back with their fourth, If I am not mistaken, post reunion album. Everything is pretty much as one would expect. Stryper pretty much turn up some melodic heavy metal with accomplished performances but compared to “No More Hell to Pay”, “Fallen” feels a bit more disjointed stylistically… maybe this could have something to do that Michael Sweet didn’t get any time off producing both a solo as well as a collaborative album with George Lynch in the meantime so some songs here, sound a little more jaded and hastily written.
The opening one-two salvo of “Yahweh” and “Fallen” are pretty strong… with the former apart from its “choral” chorus being a pretty heavy and straightforward anthem and the latter an even heavier and even somewhat modern sounding attempt that however has a chorus coming straight from the bands 80s glory days… but from then on things wane a bit… never reaching a nadir, as the band is too experienced and that helps them to avoid “fluking up”. “Big Screen Lies” for instance fails too much the brilliance of the openers, while the preaching becomes a bit too much escaping the mythological aspect and going into criticizing… “Heaven” is somewhat better but again, is not perfect…
“Love You Like I Do” probably referring to Jesus… in an allegorical way… it’s OK for a melodic number, but sounds a bit lazy and Sweet alone takes it upon himself to make the song work with his great singing and guitar performance. There’s a pretty decent, but not as eerie cover of Sabbath’s “After Forever” a couple of songs down, but there ain’t much more to dwell upon. “The Calling” contains some fine singing by Sweet, but overall doesn’t impress that much, while closer “King of Kings” wastes a good riff and a hell of a solo (excuse the pun) because it just beats around the bush for a while, instead of going for it… (the chorus that is)…
“Fallen” is not a bad album, far from Stryper to do something really bad, really, they’re much too talented to do that, but it fails to deliver as the first couple of singles have you think, feeling a bit inconsistent from a songwriting/style perspective with the flow not being as smooth as one would have hoped…
Several “Christian” Rockers have come out as atheists or what not or were revealed to be scamming and pretending to be “spiritual”, trying to get a “piece of the action” from their secular counterparts appealing straight to the repressed Christian youth… (ie As I Lay Dying etc)…
Stryper I suppose was the Iron Maiden/Judas Priest – sort of “alternative” if you wanted to steer away of “secular” rock. For almost all of their career they‘ve been, preaching the lord of god – and have been pretty damn heavy and actually almost every bit as talented as their counterparts, who used all the “satanic” imagery in a theatrical way, to cause some controversy based on the idea that no publicity is bad publicity and seeing it as an easy way to shock the public… but no, not Stryper.
Having reunited some years ago, releasing some new albums, a covers and a re-recorded album of some of their best known song as well as a live performance, the band is back with their fourth, If I am not mistaken, post reunion album. Everything is pretty much as one would expect. Stryper pretty much turn up some melodic heavy metal with accomplished performances but compared to “No More Hell to Pay”, “Fallen” feels a bit more disjointed stylistically… maybe this could have something to do that Michael Sweet didn’t get any time off producing both a solo as well as a collaborative album with George Lynch in the meantime so some songs here, sound a little more jaded and hastily written.
The opening one-two salvo of “Yahweh” and “Fallen” are pretty strong… with the former apart from its “choral” chorus being a pretty heavy and straightforward anthem and the latter an even heavier and even somewhat modern sounding attempt that however has a chorus coming straight from the bands 80s glory days… but from then on things wane a bit… never reaching a nadir, as the band is too experienced and that helps them to avoid “fluking up”. “Big Screen Lies” for instance fails too much the brilliance of the openers, while the preaching becomes a bit too much escaping the mythological aspect and going into criticizing… “Heaven” is somewhat better but again, is not perfect…
“Love You Like I Do” probably referring to Jesus… in an allegorical way… it’s OK for a melodic number, but sounds a bit lazy and Sweet alone takes it upon himself to make the song work with his great singing and guitar performance. There’s a pretty decent, but not as eerie cover of Sabbath’s “After Forever” a couple of songs down, but there ain’t much more to dwell upon. “The Calling” contains some fine singing by Sweet, but overall doesn’t impress that much, while closer “King of Kings” wastes a good riff and a hell of a solo (excuse the pun) because it just beats around the bush for a while, instead of going for it… (the chorus that is)…
“Fallen” is not a bad album, far from Stryper to do something really bad, really, they’re much too talented to do that, but it fails to deliver as the first couple of singles have you think, feeling a bit inconsistent from a songwriting/style perspective with the flow not being as smooth as one would have hoped…