The legendary yellow and black attack descended on the city of black and gold in the form of iconic Christian metal band Stryper. The prolific musicians made a stop in Warerndale Pennsylvania, a suburb of the Pittsburgh which is fittingly known for it’s black and gold clad Steelers, Penguins, Pirates teams.

Stryper is crisscrossing the nation in celebration of nearly 40 years of dominance in their market and building anticipation for their new album that is set for a fall of 2022 release. Thus far that band has released two tracks from the yet untitled album; “Rise to The Call”, and “See No Evil, Hear No Evil”. These two tracks follow the trend set by the band’s most recent albums. Though heavier and tighter than their eighties metal anthems these songs continue to capture the instantly recognizable vocal melodies, speaker blowing guitar work, and rhythms that most any band would be willing to make the deal at the cross-roads for.

The new release marks Stryper’s 14th studio album which sees front man Michael Sweet again taking on production duties for the band of all original members, save bassist Tim Gaines who exited the band and was subsequently replaced by Perry Richardson formerly of the multi-platinum selling band Firehouse in 2017.

The band opened the night with the thunderous roar of “In God We Trust” from the 1988 album of the same name. Followed by the twin guitar attack of “Revelation” from the album Hell To Pay.

The band was dressed in much more modern attire. Gone is the yellow and black spandex and big hair, but they pay homage to their “stripes” with tasteful hints of the colors throughout their clothing and of course the guitar and bass designs. Michael sported a black skull cap with a white/grey Stryper logo. They call a “slouchy hat” in their web store and is the single piece of band merch. that I must have.

Next up was the guitar crunch and deafening percussion of “The Rock That Makes Me Roll” and the nearly 40 years old vocal harmonies of “Loving You” pulled from the from the band’s debut The Yellow And Black Attack album. Sticking with the early era the band plowed through several tracks from the To Hell With The Devil album including the hits “Calling On You” and “Honestly”. But before they brought the energy level down with the MTV era ballad “Honestly” they turned it up to eleven and tore the roof off with the rhythm heavy simplicity of “Sorry” from the controversially titled album God Damn Evil.

The band did a great job in including tracks from all portions of their history even including the Against The Law era with the inclusion of the song “All For One”. Followed by yet another hit with the pop-metal harmonies of the slickly produced and radio ready “Always There For You”.  Not to corner themselves in, they jumped directly into the modern-rockers “Divider”, “The Valley”, and “Yahweh”. At this point Michael said “Rather than us going over there and off the stage and down the stairs, just to come back and play a couple more songs, we are just gonna stay here and a rock some more for you. Is that OK?” With that they burst into the iconic opening riff of “Soldiers Under Command”. The chorus had the entire audience singing along at the top of their lungs and head banging as Oz Fox and Michael Sweet shared guitar solos. Without missing a beat they burst into the career defining “To Hell With The Devil”, which again had the crowd singing along to every word and enjoying the twin-guitar onslaught of both Oz and Michael. As the song wound down and with the squeal of guitar and thundering drums behind him Michael exclaimed “Stay Safe. Say a pray every day to Him. God bless you all! We love you! Goodnight.” (SEE VIDEO BELOW)

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Josh Drespling

Josh is the Publisher and creator of Empire Extreme and it’s sister publication Kingdom Extreme Magazine. He is an accomplished writer, photographer and graphic designer. He is always conjuring up new ideas and has a amazing passion for the music industry and all the things that surround it.

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