1256. Stryper / The Yellow and Black Attack. 1984. 3/5

The arrival of Stryper on the music scene in the early 1980’s is an interesting story of returning to one’s faith and building a band around those beliefs in an industry that on the surface appeared to have little of that about it. The band itself began under the name Roxx Regime in 1983, the double x in Roxx showcasing the era of the band and the direction their music was going to take. On formation the band looked to be a straight-out glam metal band, with brothers Michael and Robert Sweet the core. A number of soon-to-be-famous guitar players, including Doug Aldrich and C.C. de Ville, all had short stints in the band before the arrival of Oz Fox who became a permanent member of the group. At around this time they began to write songs that reflected the band members Christian beliefs, and this was the direction they followed from that point onwards.
A change of band name came once bass guitarist Tim Gaines came on board, to better reflect the songs the band was writing. The name of Stryper is coined from a passage from the Book of Isiah from the Old Testament that concludes “by his stripes we are healed”, with the band taking ‘stripes’ and extending it to ‘Stryper’. They also began wearing what was coined as their bumblebee suits, with the yellow and black stripes becoming a major part of their stage act.
Signed on by Enigma Records in 1983, the band then recorded what would become their debut EP. It was originally just a six song EP, with a limited number of pressings made, as their record company was still unsure just what the Christian metal music market would be like.
The opening track “Loud ‘N’ Clear” is the clear winner on this EP, energetic, enterprising and fun to sing along to. Th true mastery of the song can really be judged on the album “Second Coming’ some 20-odd years later, when the band re-recorded their best songs, and this one got the full metal treatment that it deserves. It slays. This version has the bones without the meat. “From Wrong to Right” is highlighted by the great duel guitar solo breaks in the middle of the track from both Michael and Oz, which showcased their amazing talent on their instruments, and that they had more to offer than Christian themes. Michael’s vocals are also supreme during this song. “You Know What to Do” offers the harmony vocals of Michael along with Oz and Tim as its highlight in a feel good tone to pull along the lyrical content. “Co’Mon Rock” sounds great musically, again moving at a fast clip with a good riff throughout punctuated by that dual guitar solo spot in the back half of the song, the way Stryper does so well. “You Won’t Be Lonely” dials things back a little, not to the extent that future Stryper ballads would, as the music here is still up tempo and actually moving forward, not something that could be said about songs on future albums in this respect. “Loving You” closes out the EP in an energetic burst that also suggests the power that this band has musically without the production really giving it what it feels it deserves. This was another song that benefitted from being re-recorded down the track to showcase how good it can sound.

Let’s address the lyrical side of this album and band first. I’m not a Christian, and for those of you who happened to listen to the episodes that cover other Stryper albums on this podcast, you’ll know that for me it hasn’t been an issue. It’s great that the band has a message that they want to expand on, but for me the music and the band’s performance far outweighs anything I may or may not believe about what they are singing about. And I guess this is what their record companies worried about early on. Would there be enough Christians who wanted to listen to Stryper’s music? The answer really ended up being that you don’t have to be a Christian to like their music. I am a case in point.
This album, however, was initially a bit different. The EP gained a slight following but didn’t set the world on fire. It was eventually re-released following the success of the band’s follow up “Soldiers Under Command”, with two additional songs included to make it more appealing. And this was where I first heard it, having already digested and loved the two albums that followed it, “Soldier Under Command” and “To Hell with the Devil”, and having seen them in concert on the “To Hell with the Devil” tour in Sydney in 1987. Still probably the loudest gig I have ever been to. The problem for this EP was that, compared to those two albums, this one was... a bit tame sounding. It came across as less energetic and exciting in comparison to the material I knew so well. So I listened to it, but never really with ears that were willing to accept it.
Flash forward 20 years to the afore-mentioned “Second Coming” CD, a best-of by the band where they re-recorded all of those hits, including the two I mentioned from this EP. And – they sounded enormous. I actually couldn’t believe how good they sounded, so I went back and listened to this EP again, and two things happened. One, I was again left slightly disappointed by the original versions of those two songs compared to the new versions, but second, I gained an appreciation for the EP as a whole that I probably hadn’t had before. And over the time since, that appreciation has improved. Having pulled this CD off the shelves again over the last couple of weeks, it has been fun reliving it once again. It is only six tracks long (unless you count the re-released version from 1986 that has those two added tracks, which in my opinion actually drags back the enjoyment rather than expand it) so it is only a short sharp visit, but from a historical aspect it shows a lot of the great aspects of the band that were exploded over the next five years.