{"id":11880,"date":"2013-10-16T01:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T05:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=11880"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:52:17","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:52:17","slug":"album-review-stryper-no-more-hell-to-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=11880","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Stryper &#8211; No More Hell To Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" alt=\"stryper-no-more-hell-to-pay_600\" src=\"http:\/\/assets.blabbermouth.net.s3.amazonaws.com\/media\/stryper-no-more-hell-to-pay_600.jpg\" width=\"252\" height=\"252\" data-cfstyle=\"\" data-cfsrc=\"http:\/\/assets.blabbermouth.net.s3.amazonaws.com\/media\/stryper-no-more-hell-to-pay_600.jpg\" \/>Stryper \u2013 No More Hell to Pay<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Highlights:<\/strong> The entire album<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been a Stryper fan since 1985 and I will be the first to defend this band no matter what the cost.\u00a0 Call them cheesy, corny, Jesus freaks, whatever.\u00a0 You can call them anything but what can\u2019t say is that this band can\u2019t kick as much fucking ass as any other metal band out there.\u00a0 Yeah, I just cursed during a Stryper review.\u00a0 What are you gonna do?\u00a0 Tell Michael Sweet on me?\u00a0 Just like any metal band in the 80\u2019s of their genre Stryper put out their share of cheesy ballads but what some fail to remember is the amount of face melting material like \u201cTo Hell With The Devil\u201d, \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d, \u201cThe Writing\u2019s On The Wall\u201d, and \u201cSoldiers Under Command\u201d just to name a few.\u00a0 After disbanding in 1990, Stryper returned to the scene in 2005 with \u201cReborn\u201d and while this had fans ecstatic, this long time fan felt like they hadn\u2019t quite hit the mark.\u00a0 That is until this year\u2019s latest release <strong>No More Hell to Pay<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No More Hell To Pay<\/strong> is not just the album that I wanted to hear as a Stryper fan but it\u2019s an album that I as a metal fan am ecstatic about.\u00a0 Stryper has managed to create a face melting, jaw dropping collection of songs that not only maintains the signature Stryper sound but it also sounds modernly relevant and fresh.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t your average nostalgic metal band that is out of ideas and just going through the motions trying to be relevant.\u00a0 This is a band that has found that spark and turned into a passionate, youthful, and intense fire that burns from song to song.\u00a0 Sorry to talk about so much \u201cfire\u201d while talking about Stryper but in all seriousness, it\u2019s epic behind all of my expectations.<\/p>\n<p>Stryper digs deep into their influential roots and managed to pull three songs back to back opening the album that sound like power metal at its finest.\u00a0 A face melting cover of The Doobie Brothers\u2019 classic \u201cJesus is Just Alright\u201d kicks so much ass and makes you wonder what took them so long to do this one.\u00a0 The dueling solos in this song solidify the fact that Michael Sweet and Oz Fox are two metals most unsung and unrecognized guitar gods.\u00a0 These guys just shred it up while Michael Sweet\u2019s voice is as pristine as it\u2019s always been unleashing banshee screams that could shatter stained glass.\u00a0 Why Michael Sweet hasn\u2019t always been considered when talking about great metal vocalists I will never understand but after hearing this album, it\u2019s safe to say that he is without a doubt worthy of sitting in top tier alongside the greatest of the greats.\u00a0 \u201cThe One\u201d is a ballad but not like anything they\u2019ve ever done before. This song totally reminds me of something I would hear on an Avantasia album while \u201cTe Amo\u201d is straight up NWOBHM.\u00a0 \u201cRenewed\u201d closes out the album with a bang but I almost felt like I was left hanging somewhat which is a great thing.\u00a0 Anytime I listen to an album and when it\u2019s over feel like I could hear more of it, I know that I\u2019ve just listened to an awesome album.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No More Hell to Pay<\/strong> is a dynamic and exciting metal album no matter how you slice it.\u00a0 In all honesty, even the \u201cGod\u201d message seems to be a bit more subtle which should allow even the most Athiest of fans to grasp on to.\u00a0 With <strong>No More Hell to Pay<\/strong>, Stryper demonstrates their ability to write and deliver some of the best metal songs I\u2019ve heard this year. \u00a0Sonically it\u2019s an amazingly produced album and it sounds as bombastic and clear as any great metal album should.\u00a0 Do yourself a favor and at least give this album a try as it just may be the best album you won\u2019t be hearing all year.\u00a0 Stryper has proven to me once and for all to be an strong and defiant force in metal standing tall no matter what gets thrown their way.\u00a0 Trust me, the only thing the Brainfart will be throwing Stryper\u2019s way is two sets of high flying horns!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stryper \u2013 No More Hell to Pay Release Date: Highlights: The entire album I\u2019ve been a Stryper fan since 1985 and I will be the first to defend this band no matter what the cost.\u00a0 Call them cheesy, corny, Jesus freaks, whatever.\u00a0 You can call them anything but what can\u2019t say is that this band can\u2019t kick as much fucking ass as any other metal band out there.\u00a0 Yeah, I just cursed during a Stryper review.\u00a0 What are you gonna [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,277],"tags":[1041],"class_list":["post-11880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-music-news","tag-stryper"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19782,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11880\/revisions\/19782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}