Flashed! Stryper at The Wildhorse Saloon
Long-running Christian act Stryper is back with a new album, “The Covering” and this time they are paying homage to the artists that shaped them with 12 hard rock covers featuring songs by everyone from Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne to KISS and Black Sabbath.
“Way, way, way, back before we were even Stryper, we were a band called Roxx Regime and we were playing covers,” frontman Michael Sweet told The Tennessean. “It’s been kind of an ongoing thing because every time we would soundcheck, we would break into ‘The Trooper’ or a Priest song or whatever because those were the songs that we grew up on. Obviously, we still enjoy the music and it was such a heavy influence on our lives, that it really helped us come to fruition as musicians, ourselves. It’s an important part of who we are and we wanted to show the world that.”
But if you think it hasn’t occurred to the band how ironic it is for a Christian act to be covering such hardcore material, think again. In fact, they’ve spent much of their career challenging peoples’ ideas on what a Christian act ought to be.
“Manmade laws and stereotypes don’t always line up with your faith and we are against that. Oftentimes, it’s just how you interpret the song,” adds Sweet.
Stryper returned to Nashville for a show at The Wildhorse Saloon on Friday night and Metromix photographer Andy Evinger caught all the action.
