To Hell with the Devil

A very important moment when approaching a Christian-based music, is to go past the preachy lyrics, or manage to plain ignore them; I mean in case of you’re not a devout religious zealot. This is particularly essential with the band under scrutiny here as they tended to be more insistently dogmatic in their lyrical approach, at least at the beginning, unlike other bands belonging to the white metal movement (Seventh Angel, Bloodgood, Tourniquet, Deliverance, Trouble, White Cross, Detritus, etc.). If you manage to bypass the lyrics, what you’ll be left with would be one of the finer moments in US heavy metal history.

Stryper, founded by the brothers Robert (drums) and Michael (guitar and vocals) Sweet, started as a more full-fledged power metal outfit with the excellent “The Yellow and the Black Attack” EP which also showed a more mainstream flair without the epic embellishments that were so characteristic of the style. It also introduced their penchant for the yellow/black colour combination which was to become their staple uniform for years on end. The full-length debut increased the pop-metalish aesthetics by still retaining the hard-hitting riffage, and was another winner seeing the band fanbase growing exponentially.

As Motley Crue’s “Theatre of Pain” opened Pandora’s Box of cheesy glammy, instantly memorable melodies, there was no way this sticky stuff would have remained in the sidelines. And not only but it developed into a wholesome genre that by the end of the-80’s was pretty much the biggest phenomenon on the field second only to the thrash metal wave probably. Stryper were holding onto the edge of power metal, but with these new possibilities opened wide before them, they simply had to try. And they did, to quite positive results, truth be told. The title-track is a rousing heavy metal hymn with vivid bouncy guitars and the excellent emotional vocals which at times have this slightly awkward tendency to scream in a hysterical banshee-like manner. “Calling on You” is the epitome of the whole pop-metal campaign, a feelgood pleaser with great guitar work, though, which openly cheesy nature is simply addictive. “Free” hardens the course a bit, a really cool heavy metal anthem with a great chorus, followed by “Honestly”, a tender ballad with a lot of piano tunes “roaming” inside, cool romantic stuff.

“The Way” is an explosive power/speedster, one of the band’s undisputable masterpieces, with great soaring vocals and hard-hitting steel riffs; one could wish a whole album sustained in this vein… Well, this is not the way of the yellow and the black attackers who carry on with the most sing-along song in metal history, logically titled “Sing-Along Song”, which reminds of Judas Priest’s attempts at cheese (“United”, Take on the World”), but this one has a longer-lasting appeal, and must have been a big crowd favourite when performed live. “Holding On” has superb melodic tunes overflowing from every note, making another tribute to the pop metal fraternity in all its sweet glory. Nothing of the kind on “Rockin’ the World” which is a great power metal hymn the guys shredding with passion producing another heavy hitter akin to their early repertoire. And this should have been the closer as the final “All of Me” is an operatic balladic tenderness with female vocals.

One can’t help but feel good listening to this carefree, uplifting light-hearted music with sudden outbursts of aggression, a collection which is equal shares pop, heavy, and power/speed metal. For a wider appeal to more branches from the metal audience one can hardly wish for a better opus the Sweet brothers having found the “sweet” spot to please a bigger gamut of fans… Not for long, though, as the follow-up was a total surrender to the glam metal charade the band losing whatever more intense flair had remained. It failed to generate the requisite amount of interest, and “Against the Law” saw them going back to their more brutal roots two years later. A big improvement over its lacklustre predecessor in every department, this effort also saw them abandoning their preachy lyrics for the sake of a more diverse array of topics, not necessarily restricted to religion anymore.

Alas, the-90’s were beckoning with other demands to which Stryper had no intentions on subjecting, a statement already clearly made with the title of their last opus, and they split up. They waited patiently for the groove/grunge/alternative trends to fade away, and reformed with the aptly-titled “Reborn” in 2005. Although this particular album didn’t present the guys at their best, featuring mostly blasé hard’n heavy, it paved the way for a string of very good works bringing the band back to the spotlight. Although their first three opuses remain their finest hour, one never knows when the yellow and the black attackers will saddle the white horses and start shredding with force again, to send the devil back to hell.

Ah, Stryper. In 1986, they ruled the metal world- or at least, that's what it seemed like to some of us at the time. To Hell With the Devil was the first platinum-selling album by a christian rock band, and a heavy metal one, at that. The album sold strongly all the way through 1987 and right into their next release, In God We Trust. During most of '87, their music videos sat at the very top of the daily Dial MTV's most-requested-videos chart, a testament to their fans, and music- for the idea that a christian band could beat out Prince, Madonna, et al was rock n' roll blasphemy, but the evidence was undeniable. These guys had achieved the impossible.

If you didn't know any of that, and were to listen to the album blindly, you might garner a different opinion. Production-wise, it's clearly heads-and-shoulders over their previous effort, Soldiers Under Command. Everything is clearer, crisper, richer- the inevitable result of a more luxurious recording budget, I'm sure. And their new, improved yellow-and-black outfits are big jump from the "mom sewed me this cool spandex costume for halloween" look of before. But the songs, well, they haven't weathered the years so well.

By the time this album was out, glam metal had taken over, and Stryper wasn't going to miss out on the biggest cash cow in metal's brief history. Hairspray and makeup? Sure, pile them on, just like all those other bands are doing. Catchy hooks and ballads for the ladies? No problem. Michael Sweet always had a knack for pop hooks, and he exploits it to the fullest here for full radio-friendly effect. Yes, Calling on You and Holding On have hummable choruses and lots of layered harmonies, even more than before. But they're not actually better-written songs than what you find on Soldiers..., they're just better produced. The title track rocks hard, but it doesn't have much of a melody in the verses, and even less of one in the chorus. And the ballads? Honestly will forever be their biggest hit, and at the time I probably fantasized about singing that to my future special lady-friend. In retrospect, though, it's just okay. It has some nice moments and employs a dramatic structure well, but it's pretty sappy- though nowhere near as painful as All of Me which is pure velveeta.

Given all that, for a glam metal album, it's a decent effort- one that even manages to rock hard the way Stryper can on a couple of tracks (The Way and More Than a Man.) And the crowd-favorite Sing-Along-Song Song is still fun after all these years- it's just not as strong as its predecessor, Makes Me Wanna Sing. Which is pretty much how the whole album is- a fun nostalgic 80's glam metal trip, but not as strong as what came before. Michael's "this song is either about God or some girl I'm into- take your pick" formula gets pretty much played out on this album, not that it's stopped him from continuing with the bad habit decades later. The band would water-down their sound even further on the next album, a last hurrah for a genre that was about to be shot dead by Seattle, but you have to give these metal missionaries props for achieving the impossible- pleasing the fans, the airwaves, the record stores, and the churches (!?!) all at once.

***

One final note- the original album cover is pure metal awesomeness, a painting of the band as angels dumping evil-rocker Satan back where he belongs. This was apparently too much for someone, forcing the label into plopping the logo over black on future pressings while chanting "to hell with good album covers". It is one ugly affair!

When one thinks of what was defining rock radio in 1986, images of LA sleaze bands putting the “D” back in debauchery tend to emerge. Stryper seems to buck the trend in this respect with their most well known and top selling album “To Hell With The Devil”, but not really in any other. Although perhaps a bit heavier than Dokken in the riff department, and a bit more adventurous in their songwriting than AOR hounds Bon Jovi, and still retains a small remnant of the metallic character of “Yellow And Black Attack”, this sounds pretty stereotypical by 80s glam standards. The songwriting is very predictable; the guitar work is fancy but largely avoids the epically indulgent lead breaks, and the production is as pristine as a meadow scene from Disney’s Bambi.

Perhaps my biggest complaint about this music is the fact that it tends to get too light and fluffy at times, even by Rock radio standards, and Stryper clearly falls into the trap something awful with their hit Power Ballad single “Honestly” and the even more sappy and guitar-free doppelganger “All Of Me”. Picture Styx without the slightly manlier voice in Dennis DeYoung, or better yet, just picture Air Supply and give it an even higher voice, and you’ll be all the way there. Compound it with a quirky 80s electric piano sound that would make Europe’s Mic Michaeli blush; and you’ll have an instant platinum ballad that almost no Y chromosome bearer will admit to liking publicly.

But in spite of these two glaring Persian flaws that most prototypical Glam albums tend to carry, most of what can be heard on here is actually relatively solid. There’s a few barely passable pieces of AOR fanfare in “Sing-Along Song” and “Calling On You” that are just a bit too happy for their own good, but the general rule of faith coming down from this pulpit is a few well placed heavy riffs (usually 2 or 3), a soaring tenor out of Michael Sweet (whose voice sort of lives up to his last name a little too much), a few tasteful lead breaks with some solid fret board shredding, and a good sense of melody. The title song and “More Than A Man” pump in some traditional metal elements, most of them taken from Saxon and Iron Maiden and are the heaviest of the lot, while “The Way” and “Rockin’ The World” actually venture into speed metal territory and really bring home the catchiness simultaneously.

This is the sort of album that appeals more to 80s glam fans than anything else, which is pretty much the same situation that you find with their albums after this. The overtly Christian themes will probably turn off a lot of people who go for similar sounding bands like Dokken and Motley Crue, who tend to be on the opposite side of anything resembling puritanical values, though Wasp fans who didn’t jump ship after hearing of Blackie’s recent conversion might like some of the material on here. Those who can either agree with or otherwise tune out the lyrics and want something that’s more of a head-banging venture will want to look earlier in this band’s history.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on December 23, 2010.

Stryper’s most popular and sole platinum release To Hell With The Devil is a bit overrated in the Christian metal scene but is still of high quality. The more speed metal based sound of Soldiers Under Command isn’t as prevalent on this release focusing more on a mid-tempo more lead guitar based sound. To Hell With The Devil has a more mainstream/commercial sound then it’s predecessors but is heavier and still has a traditional metal vibe. The lengths of each song are a bit shortened and To Hell With The Devil contains Stryper’s sole all instrumental album intro Abyss (To Hell With The Devil).

Most songs are mid-tempo besides a few more speed metal oriented songs like The Way, Rockin’ The World, and More Than A Man. Two ballads are present on this release as well but they aren’t as corny as the two on Soldiers Under Command. A new element that wasn’t really present on previous releases is the usage of a solo opener on a few songs on this album. The album production is even clearer and louder than on Soldiers Under Command and really gives To Hell With The Devil a nice presence to it. Atmosphere is only represented on the instrumental album intro Abyss (To Hell With The Devil).

Michael Sweet’s vocal performance is just as good as on Soldiers Under Command though he doesn’t use his falsettos as frequently. His rhythm guitar is darn good on this release and definitely highlights on the faster numbers. Oz Fox really shines on this release playing some of his best and most inventive leads and riffs of his career (his solos are phenomenal on this release. Robert Sweet’s drumming is even better than on Soldiers Under Command especially on his fills. Brad Cobb plays bass on this release and his bass guitar is fortunately audible and a bit more inventive than Tim Gaines. John Van Tongren’s keyboard use is more prevalent than Tim Gaines keyboard usage on Soldiers Under Command.

Unfortunately the quality and overall entertainment value isn’t as high as on Soldiers Under Command. To Hell With The Devil has more filler and doesn’t focus as much on Stryper’s better usage of speed metal. Choruses while being a strong point on this release are not as good as on Soldiers Under Command. Finally many of the songs are more simplistic and less riff based than on previous releases.

To Hell With The Devil isn’t the classic it is said to be but is still a very solid release in Stryper’s back catalogue. Unfortunately things would get worse for Stryper on their next release. Best songs are To Hell With The Devil, The Way, Rockin’ The World, and More Than A Man. I recommend this release to fans of Stryper, traditional metal, and hair metal only.

-5 points more filler based and less speed metal numbers
-5 points choruses are a bit weaker than on Soldiers Under Command
-5 points more simplistic and less riff based songs

20 years after it's release, To Hell With the Devil remains the bar by which all Christian acts struggle to achieve.

While the message of Stryper was entirely different than other metal bands, the music was the same and they were actually pretty good at it. Michael Sweet was not your typical vocalist, and his voice soared over most others at the time. Sure, he wasn't in the league of Geoff Tate, but he was close! His pitch is slightly higher than most others at the time, which made for perfect power ballads. Their biggest hit, Honestly, is a testament to this (get it!). While most men either cringed or privately loved the song, it wasn't a traditional metal song.

Oz Fox was and is a great guitarist, but his best work wasn't until later albmus. On To Hell With the Devil, and the previous two albums, he shared solos with Michael Sweet or they dueled. The cassette liners back then used to say who played what solo on which song, and sometimes even numbered the solos. My only complaint, and this is no fault of Oz Fox's, is that his guitar volume always seemed slightly lower than Michael Sweet's. Even in concert, and I've been to hundreds of metal shows, Oz Fox's guitar work was always overshadowed by Michael Sweet's vocals and during solos it was difficult to hear Oz play!

Tim Gaines is competant, yet unspectacular on To Hell With the Devil. His bass playing, because of the way pop metal was played at the time, is overshadowed by the guitars, vocals, and the drums. On the one song intro there is a heavy bass presence, and unless I'm mistaken Tim Gaines had some help with it. Still, Tim Gaines is a solid bass player and provided great vocal work for the harmonies that Stryper loves so much.

Robert Sweet on drums, and his drumming is absolutely 80's! It's not bad, but it's not great, either. Again, like Time Gaines, Robert Sweet is solid. Because of the way the music was played at the time, drumming wasn't exactly brought out of the forefront of metal. It was either guitar or vocals, and this often left the rythym section out in the cold.

All of Me, the other ballad, is not good. Even for 80's metal standards where the bands often tried to provide a ballad to prove that the bad boys of rock had a soft side, this is bad. For a pop ballad, or a different genre, All of Me isn't a bad song but on a metal album it's absolutely terrible. However, there were lot's of weddings to this song.

Honestly is the ballad and the song which put Stryper on the musical map. Before, they were known only in the Christian circles or as an obscure metal band on the rise, but this song blew up MTV and was a most requested video for many, many weeks. It was also played at a lot of proms at the time!

There are some genuine rocking songs on this album, most notably To Hell With the Devil, Rocking the World, The Way, Free, and More Than a Man.

One doesn't need to listen to the lyrics or the message to enjoy Stryper's music. Actually, while Stryper is unashamedly a Christian act who consider their band a ministry, there are thousands of fans who are not Christian or do not care about their message. In the 80's, Stryper wasn't the heaviest band or even the best, but they did rock on and could hold their own.

The Christian metal movement began in the middle 80’s and without any doubt; the band that took it from the bottom to stardom was Stryper. ‘To Hell with the Devil’ has been considered their finest effort mainly because of the recognition they got with mega hits like the title track, ‘Calling on you’ and ‘Honestly’ which gave them a lot of radio airplay and they even released video clips. Not bad for a band which topics were related to Christianity back then.


Now let’s focus on the band: the focal point is without question the high pitched vocals of Michael Sweet and the slashing guitars from Ox Fox. Michael manages to go from mellow soft vocals to high octaves without any problem. He is the mastermind of the band and an excellent singer. Oz Fox sounds to me like a regular guitar player with some similarities with C.C.DeVille, Warren de Martini and some others. Tim Gaines fits perfectly with the music although I think his emphasis goes on funk music. Robert Sweet is just a filler drummer. He manages to go along with the rhythm part but he stays there, he doesn’t know how to do anything else and most notorious he is a clown on stage.


In regards to the music the songs are ultra catchy, managing to remain in your head for years and the album has a certain structure, most like all glam metal bands from those days: the title track at the beginning or a really heavy track, two commercial songs, the mandatory power ballad, more regular songs, the second ballad, and the heaviest track at the end. The highlights on the album: ‘To Hell with the Devil’, ‘The way’, ‘Rocking the world’ and ‘More than a man’. These are good rocking songs in all aspects: anthemic, heavy, with all the criteria you can expect from heavy metal. The ballads are too irritating to me since the power comes from the keyboards and they are too corny.


Since this album was their groundbreaking success they have preformed around 7 songs live and they keep on doing it for many years to come. This tells you how good the album was and it is a good example of the Heavy Metal era with the glam brushes on it. About the lyrics they keep them simple, very free in order to reach the masses that were into Judas Priest, WASP, KISS and Iron Maiden to leave you thinking about your choices in life but anyhow, they were a solid heavy band with the imagery of yellow-black just as some bands had bikes, fire, women or any other archetype to make themselves different.


I would not choose this as their best but if you are into Poison, Guns n’ Roses, RATT or any of those cool bands from back then give yourself a chance to listen to this guys because they really knew how to rock the world.

Stryper are truly one of the landmark bands by which all other lame bands are judged. They play overtly Christian glam metal. I'll repeat that. Christian glam metal. This is the lamest of the lame. Likely formed as a response and positive alternative to the sleaze and debauchery glorified by the likes of Motley Crue and the popular metal bands of the day, Stryper are the musical equivalent of a door-to-door Jehovah's Witness: irritating and ineffective. They fail to make Christianity any hipper, succeeding only in making glam metal worse. And they somehow make it much, much worse.

The things that are wrong with this band are numerous and apparent, but I'll start with the music. After a few listens, I was surprised to find that this isn't completely worthless musically, but it might as well be. At best, this album acts like a third-rate British Steel, with distinctive Night Ranger-esque tendencies during the guitar solo passages, but at worst (which it tends to be much more frequently) it's a third-rate Cinderella album. Vocalist Michael Sweet is annoying as hell. He's ever-so-noticably out of tune when he attempts to imitate traditional metal vocals (his attempts at high-register wailing is sure to make any listener cringe), while the rest of the time his voice is so sugary sweet (no pun intended) that you'll likely vomit onto your shoes. The song structures are standard of 80's hard rock, with generic riff passages designed only to highlight the vocals and lots of psuedo-catchy harmonized lead melodies that would make Maiden's Murray/Smith tagteam roll over in their respective graves (if they were dead). The actual guitar solos aren't too shabby and their tone is actually pretty good, but the riffs on here are bullshit. Drums and bass are standard issue and generally unspectacular, with the only real annoyance existing in the form of this one horrid drum fill in the middle of "Sing-Along Song" that has the distinction of sounding like Robert Sweet falling over his drum kit. There's also plenty of cheesy 80's style synthesizer layers to take insulting up a few notches to intolerable. Despite this, the band does have a few mentionable songs/parts of songs. The title track, "Rockin' the World," and "More Than a Man" have some riffs and melody lines that are far less abysmal than the rest of the album, much more like Skid Row than Cinderella, and I dare say that "The Way" could pass for speed metal. The rest is generic glam rock tainted with Christian overtones. Oh, and there's two unbelievably shitty ballads that make every sappy, so-called "flower metal" power ballad sound like Dark Fucking Angel by comparison. I've heard Shania Twain songs with more balls than the tracks "Honestly" and "All of Me." Nothing else on the album is this bad, but the inclusion of these two tracks makes this infinitely less bearable.

My final complaint is with the lyrics. Though the general sound of the album is akin to standard 80's glam, the lyrics are written just as if Stryper were your typical Christian rock band. Simple, repetitive, and reeking of moral superiority, this album's lines have all the ingenuity of a children's bible study lesson, though it doesn't take a kindergartner to come to the conclusion that the album is the lamer of the two. The inconvenience of Christian rock lyrics is the exclusive subject matter, but its fatal flaw is their pretentious attitude. Though the same could probably be said about a number of other bands in regards to their political ideologies or their anti-religious sentiment, Christian artists are easily the most consistent when it comes to relaying the feeling of having the band's agenda shoved down your throat. To say that Styper are a bit preachy is to say that Anal Cunt are a bit crude. An understatement, to say the least. And for the record, I'm not against positive or Christian-themed messages in metal music, but I believe there's a right and a wrong way to go about including them. Stryper, as well as every band I've heard from an exclusively Christian label, embody the wrong way to offer a positive alternative or to spread Christian ideals. For an example of the subtler, unassuming way to deliver your idealism through metal without coming off as preachy (as well as in a far better package, musically), check out the early Trouble albums or Devastation (and probably a number of others that few have had the priveledge to hear).

So whether its their shrill, warbaling vocalist, their uninspired, trendy songwriting, their pukishly poppy ballads or their uptight Christian agenda, Stryper aims to displease, on every conceivable level. I can't imagine their other albums being much better than this, but then again, surely they can't be worse? This is the kind of album that makes the rest of glam look good and I cannot even begin to imagine a target audience that I could recommend this to outside of the perversely masochistic. Avoid this like the plague and never let anyone convince you that it is rewarding in any way, or else prepare to regret your decision. And likely prepare to wash your shoes.

This is an unequal album at best. There are moments in this album of pure synthetic brilliance and parts that belong to a Catholic Church choir.


The title track is really, what metal is about, an epic bringing to mind biblical pictures of divine punishment, overflowing by powerful riffs, majestic lines and ravishing vocals. Oz Fox’s guitar work is the main attraction throughout the album transforming a glam-orientated band to a metal one. Michael Sweet’s voice is pitching to a remarkable height and at some points (the refrain of 'The Way'); he reaches the borders of Geoff Tate!
The drumming is a bit unimaginative keeping to a steady pace and Tim Gaines’s bass is solid enough to deliver the appropriate soundwall for the riffs.


Some very frustrating ‘gospel’ rock melodies show their ugly faces next and catch you by surprise. The whole thing turns to US glam metal, which is not so bad if you have a taste for this sound. Descent riffs appear here and there inflating hope for something good but soon they drown in the general melodic pit. Their general attitude (throwing bibles in the crowd) is a bit ridiculous but mid 80s were the times of stylistic exaggeration in the US.


Another annoying thing is the lyrics. Simplistic hymns without purpose or argument, they sound like the product of a South Park episode.
For example:
In a land of freedom
God has sent His grace,
we’re proud to live in such a place.

In short, in this album we have 'To hell with devil' and 'The Way', which are real shocking gems of brimstone and hellfire and stick out like thorns in the Garden of Eden. The rest are mediocre hard rock with heavy riffs and 'All of me' is the equivalent of a music carpet for a Sunday school lesson!