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Stryper - Murder By Pride, Big 3
Records/Frontiers Records
| Michael Sweet listened to the fans. The principal writer for rock/metal
band Stryper returned with the second album since the band's comeback to the rock scene.
Stryper sold millions in the eighties with successfull album like To Hell With The Devil
and In God We Trust. The group disbanded in the early nineties. Reborn was the 2005
comeback album. Originally this was meant to be a solo record for singer/guitarist Michael
Sweet as you can hear all over the album. It was as if the real Stryper never emerged,
except in the remake of the classic In God We Trust. But Michael Sweet listened to the
fans and gave them what they demanded: Murder By Pride. Though there's still enough of a
modern feel to the record, the trademark Stryper elements returned: harmonic vocals,
interesting guitar sounds and solos. One of the songs that stick out is the title track
that sounds like vintage Stryper. It's a good pop metal tune with nice guitar tones,
harmonically layered vocals, Michael Sweet's high pitched screams and a guitar solo. As it
comes to solos, the fans of this gets a real treat in 4 Leaf Clover. But Stryper always
had sensitive ballads too. If you are into that, check out Alive. The European release
contains the bonus track My Love, My Life, My Flame, a song taken from Michael Sweet's
solorecord Touched. Michael Sweet wrote it during his wife's battle with cancer, a battle
she lost. With this in mind, this piano ballad is touching (no pun intended). The
Murder By Pride album sounds like what Reborn might have been like, if that album had been
properly produced as a Stryper album. The only element on Murder By Pride that could be
developed more are the catchy choruses they had in the past. Choruses that were simple but
effective: real sing-along-songs with repeated phrases. Murder By Pride contains only few
of them. But anyway, Stryper is back on the right track!
Listen to Stryper on myspace.com. |
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