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Stryper - When We Were Kings (September 13, 2024)


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New album coming September 24th

New single “End of Days” drops tomorrow.

IMG_7700.webp

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OMG - this cover art.... :devil:

I wish Stryper was a satirical band like Steel Panther. But they take all that religion stuff seriously, so I can't take them seriously.  Well, it helps that I don't like their sound anyway, especially Michael Sweet's voice. I liked his first solo album a lot, but as soon as his voice reaches higher pitches, I find it simply weak and boring. And incomprehensible. Just my opinion.

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New song “End of Days”

I’m sure there’ll probably be a lyric video or visualizer of some sorts later today. 

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2 hours ago, whiplash1972 said:

New song “End of Days”

I’m sure there’ll probably be a lyric video or visualizer of some sorts later today. 

And here it is....

 

 

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It's actually a little better than usual--I can actually understand about 25% of Michael's singing. :P

Jokes aside, it's a decent, typical Stryper tune. Hardly the greatest song they've ever written, but nowhere near the bottom either. My 17 year-old daughter, a casual Stryper listener at best, gave it a shot, shrugged, and said, "It sounds like all the other 'whatever' Stryper songs."

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A new album is coming. This song represents the heavy side. There is a more melodic side and even a poppier side to this album. The best is yet to come. I can’t wait for you all to hear it.

Against all odds, we’ve fought the fight and we’ve finished the race. We are blessed.
September can’t come fast enough🙌
 
Why release this as the first song if there are better songs to come? Surely if you think there are better songs on the album, you release them first to hook people into buying it.
 
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  • 3 weeks later...

Of those new tracks, "Grateful" is the better offering, bringing back some "pop-rock" melody to their sound. "Loves Symphony" is pretty much a throwaway filler track. I probably won't skip it every time ... but I'll skip it sometimes.

Listening to all the samples on iTunes, it's clear there are some better tunes on the album--though little that competes with their glory days--so I'm not sure why they didn't lead with those.

And, oh yeah, still nearly impossible to understand what Michael Sweet it wailing on about. He's still got a good, powerful voice ... but his enunciation is shot to hell.

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Posted (edited)

The artwork is a fucking disgrace BTW.

Using scripture and imagery of the Lord to promote yourself and your commercial endeavours is blasphemy of the highest order.

It's the main reason why I can't tolerate "Christian" Hard Rock/Metal, etc. Too self righteous and self serving. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm far from some devout follower of any mainstream religion, I just hate hypocrisy. 

Okay, that's my rant for the day.

 

Edited by Darkstone
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  • 4 weeks later...
On 8/15/2024 at 3:24 PM, Stefan said:

New video 'When We Were Kings'.

 

 

Very cool video; you know a lot of effort went into putting together all those pics and video footage from the last 40 years!

Plus, I can actually understand most of what Michael is singing on this one! :P 

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19 hours ago, whiplash1972 said:

Very cool video; you know a lot of effort went into putting together all those pics and video footage from the last 40 years!

Plus, I can actually understand most of what Michael is singing on this one! :P 

Cool trip down memory lane. People can slag on 'em all they want, but there was a time when Stryper truly was a huge, arena-packing, "white-metal" juggernaut.

And I think I understood about 40% of the lyrics this time, so Michael's getting better. :P

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  • 4 weeks later...

"Rhyme of Time"

With the new album out today, it's a nice time to look back to their debut, and this cool little factoid (I had never heard this...)

 

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On 8/16/2024 at 5:24 AM, Stefan said:

New video 'When We Were Kings'.

 

 

Yeah, cool vid. I find it pretty hard to get into the current Stryper albums, but this one has a little more light and shade, so to speak. As with so many albums these days, I couldn't find a keeper on it, but 'Betrayed by love,' and 'Grateful' and 'Rhyme of Time' were my favourites of the bunch. 

Sweet solo in the 'When we were kings' song, though. 

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1 hour ago, Geoff said:

Yeah, cool vid. I find it pretty hard to get into the current Stryper albums, but this one has a little more light and shade, so to speak. As with so many albums these days, I couldn't find a keeper on it, but 'Betrayed by love,' and 'Grateful' and 'Rhyme of Time' were my favourites of the bunch. 

Sweet solo in the 'When we were kings' song, though. 

I find the same thing. First listen, even the second or third before the songs start to catch on a bit.

Surprisingly it's usually worth it, last few stryper albums have presented to me as being heavy unhooky and mundane to start with, but after a few listens they start to embed some grooves in my head and I start to really dig them.

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I still have Against the law right up there in my favourite albums of all time. I love Reborn and Murder by pride. Everything after that, except the covers album, has done absolutely nothing for me. In fact I will go as far as to say nothing Michael has done since then has done much for me. You know when things are rough though when you have to turn on subtitles on for an English speaking band on YouTube :P

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I like the new album, but then I'm a bit of a fanboy, I like pretty much all their stuff (with the exception of the wretchedl dull Reborn)... 

I will say it loses steam towards the back half of the album, but then you could probably say that about most of their recent stuff. They tend to pack the heavy firepower up front.

Of course the album cover is hilariously cheesy, but if you're a Stryper fan, you should already be used to a healthy dose of cheez.

As usual, I take the rah-rah-Jesus-loves-me gibberish about as seriously as I take Venom's eeeeevil-in-league-with-saaaaaatan schtick. 

Edited by Fat Freddy
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