Stryper - To Hell With the Devil (2000 edition)

What is yellow and black and likes to kick some Devil’s butt? Yeah, you guessed it. It is Stryper ! If you don’t know what Stryper is, you’re either new to metal or at a young age. They were huge in the middle/end of the 80’s. They’re playing classich heavy metal with a strong vocalist in the name of Michael Sweet. The whole band is very talented, they’re fanastic musicians. Michael’s brother Roberts handles the drums, and he’s one of the best out there. Oz Fox gives us some shreddings with his guitar and Timothy Gaines uses his bass in a very special way. So, now I have succeded to get my hands of a very limited (1000ex) copy of their classic CD “To hell with the devil” with a bonus track named “Winter wonderland”. Well, enough about the presentation. Let’s go and check out if they have succeded to produce any goods tracks (it should strange if they had NOT, when they sold some millions of this disc...).

1. Abyss (To hell with the devil) 1.11 -
This is just a short warmupper to the following track, it tries to make a creepy atmosphere here, but well I am not so impressed by that.

2. To hell with the devil. 4:08 -
Kicking devil’s butt-metal does not get any better than this. A VERY catchy chorus singing (surprisingly) “To hell with the devil” followed by some great guitarplaiying. This is one classic song that I think it deserves your attention.

3. Calling on you 3:59 -
Well after we have kicked some devils we need some refreshments I think ! And what do we get, a midtempo rocky ballad. Not a usual ballad with only keyboards though. This is a pretty descent song, with (another) catchy chorus. Not any of the better tracks, but good song.

4. Free 3.44 -
Right from the beginning we know this will be a great song. Blasting guitars attacking our ears with no remorse! That’s the way I like it ! More melodic metal to the people ! We also get some great lyrics here “You’re free, free to do what you want to, choose your own destiny” A great song.

5. Honestly 4.10 -
Now this is a ballad. Sweet shows here that he has a great vocal range. A powerful ballad, with a harmonic feeling, where the lyrics says “Call on me and I will be there for you”. Nice work.

6. The Way 3:36 -
After the slowly effort of Honestly, Stryper accelerates up some MPH and gives us a faster song. I personally thinks that Stryper handles the faster songs much better than the slower ones, so this one is The Way I like it (I just had to say that...). Some cool guitar riffs are also to be found here. A great song.

7. Sing-Along song 4:21 -
This is perhaps, along with THWD, the best song of the disc. Micheal's vocal-harmonies are just awesome here. This is great stuff. A crunchy power driven melodic heavy metal tune (try to say that 10 times as fast as you can...).

8. Holding on 4:16 -
Melodic heavy metal. Again Michael shows the world that he is one of the best singers the metal world has seen. Crystal clear he sings out “I’m holding on, to the one from above. The one that’s secure, the one that as has cured my broken heart with perfect love”

9. Rockin’ the World 3:30 -
Again we’ll turn up the tempo a bit. This a rocky song with a great chorus. A cool song, but again not their best. It is little too short for me.

10. All of me 3:11 -
Beware, now Stryper gives a really heartbreaking ballad. If you hate any kinds of ballads you should skip this tune. It could fit as a soundtrack for the movie Titanic. But I don’t hate ballads, so I think this a good tune you can play when you’re on a date with you girl-/boyfriend. “I’m giving you all of me. Cause you me all of you. I’ll love you forever. For you my love’s so strong.”

11. More than a man 4:36 -
To end (the official) album up they have decided to give us a heavier song. I say:Thank you Stryper! This is one of the better tracks, a great heavymetal song with a crunchy sound. It is a worthy song to end a great album.

12. Winter Wonderland 3:13 -
A classic christmas song done by a classic band. The result is a classic song. Not any special but it is a descent bonus track to satiesfie a Stryper fan like me.

Stryper has, in my point of view, released one of the strongest classic heavy metal albums out there. Combining a great vocalist and fantastic guitar playing they’ve created one of the most powerful albums the worlds has seen. Some people say that they’re just stupid Christians destroying the evil heavy metal world. But I say if you haven’t listen to tracks like “To hell with the devil” and “More than a man” your metal collection is not complete.

Additional Comments: The fans asked for it and they got it! This new version is a carbon copy (in looks) to the highly sought after original pressing of Styper's "To Hell With the Devil" with the infamous angel cover. In a flash of censorship their record company pulled this awe-inspiring (and heavy in religious overtones) album cover much to the fans' dismay... The rare cd dealers are no doubt not too happy with this turn of events, since the original pressing of the disc was regularly sold to collectors at outrageous prices (up in the hundreds of dollars) making it one of the most expensive cds in heavy metal.

RATING
9.3
Songs: 9,1 Performance: 9.0 Production :9.5 Lyrics : 9,5

HOT SPOTS: To Hell With the Devil, The Sing-A Long Song, Rockin' the World

Review by Anders Olin
Additional Comments by Alanna Evans

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