S T R Y P ER
31
A time machine would be fun. Imagine if you went back and contacted Stryper in 1986 and told them that they’d be releasing a covers album 25 years later. Sweet thinks that happened and actually cites that as a reason for doing it now (not really). “I probably would have thought, ‘Yeah. I can see that. Not now, but somewhere down the road, I could see our band doing that.’ We grew up on covers. Before Stryper we were Roxx – before we changed the name to Roxx Regime. We were a trio. For a long time I was the only guitar player and we did covers. We played Gazzari’s as a cover band and we did Priest and we did ‘Breaking the Law.’ We did a lot of these songs. It’s nothing new for us. We cut our teeth on these songs. Then, as we went along, when we became Stryper, we used to soundcheck these songs – to a horrified group of people. I remember we would go into some of these churches and start playing a Sabbath or a Maiden song and we’d get serious grief for it. People would just be all up in arms over that. That was back in ‘85, ‘86 and ‘87. We started adding to the set ‘On Fire’ during the Against the Law tour and then we added ‘Breakin’ the Law’ a couple years ago, so it’s not really a new thing for us. We’re proud of where we come from musically. We don’t hide it because we’re Christians. We don’t try to run from that and say, ‘Oh yeah, we can’t talk about that! We’re Christians now.’ I don’t buy into that kind of stuff. We’re all about showing people where we come from. As long as we don’t compromise who we are now and our faith and our beliefs now. It’s okay to show people where you come from. It’s a good thing. It’s a good testimony.” So far the album is going over well. Movement on downloads are way up from the previous record, as is the online buzz in general. Sweet attributes it to balanced arrangements: “I think somehow we were able to go in, thank God, and achieve many times the unachievable – and that is to put your own spin on a cover and make it your own but at the same time not make it your own so much that you destroy the magic of the original. I think a lot of bands do that. They go in and they do a cover and you listen to it and you think, ‘Oh man! What did they do?’ So, we tried to stay true to the original arrangements and keep the vibe the originals had and yet at the same time put our own little spin on it and not so much so that people are saying, ‘Oh, man! What did they do?’ On most of the tracks I think we accomplished that.” Mission accomplished, indeed.
METAL CAN BE FUN BY DOUG VAN PELT