{"id":16564,"date":"2016-10-03T01:00:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T05:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=16564"},"modified":"2016-10-03T08:45:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T12:45:03","slug":"stryper-paints-atlanta-yellow-and-black-to-celebrate-30-years-of-to-hell-with-the-devil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=16564","title":{"rendered":"Stryper Paints Atlanta Yellow and Black To Celebrate 30 Years of To Hell with the Devil!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stryper<\/strong>
\n September 29, 2016<\/strong>
\n Atlanta, GA<\/strong>
\n Center Stage Theater<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me just get this out of the way first.\u00a0 For over 30 years, Stryper has taken all kinds of shit from the metal community.\u00a0 Nobody seems to give King Diamond or Watain a hard time for their religious beliefs so why should Stryper get shit for theirs?\u00a0 Ok, in all honesty, Satan is probably a cooler looking deity with all kinds of pointy stars and shit while Christianity has a cross but whatever.\u00a0 At the end of the day, only a few things truly matter: Can you rock?\u00a0 Can you write good songs?\u00a0 Can you put on a face melting show of epic proportions that give most other metal bands a run for their money?\u00a0 Well, when talking about Stryper, the answer is yes, yes, and H-E-double hockey sticks YES!<\/p>\n

The last time I saw Stryper was in \u201988 on the In God We Trust tour in New Orleans with Jetboy opening so asking me if I was excited about this show is an understatement.\u00a0 Stryper chose Atlanta as the launch pad for the 30th<\/sup> Anniversary tour of their most popular, groundbreaking album to date, To Hell With the Devil.\u00a0 If you\u2019re like me, you\u2019re probably thinking, \u201cHas it really been 30 years?\u201d\u00a0 It has indeed been thirty years and getting the opportunity to witness this album performed in its entirety is something that I was not going to miss.\u00a0 Center Stage Theater (declared a sellout at show time) was packed and there was a huge wave of positive energy and excitement in the air.\u00a0 I literally saw three generations of Stryper fans in the audience and this immediately showed me the impact and longevity of Strypers music.<\/p>\n

The show opened up with a really fun video documentary on the history of Stryper leading up to To Hell With the Devil.\u00a0 Everyone laughed, cheered, and intently watched the video projected on the screen behind the drums.\u00a0 This was such a great way to get the crowd pumped up and even maybe educate some of the \u201cnew schoolers.\u201d\u00a0 Once the video was finished \u201cAbyss\u201d filled the room with a countdown clock on the screen.\u00a0 This had the crowd cheering loudly as the band took the stage and slammed right into \u201cTo Hell With The Devil.\u201d<\/p>\n

This a really ambitious song in its own right and to open with it right out the gates was nothing short of facemelting.\u00a0\u00a0 The band sounded and looked absolutely amazing.\u00a0 They played with so much power and so much energy that I couldn\u2019t help but head bang and thrust my fist in the air singing along every word.\u00a0 Michael Sweet\u2019s vocals were so powerful that people almost looked in awe as he let out that closing note of the song.\u00a0 Without even breaking the band went right into \u201cCalling On You\u201d which once again had everyone going nuts and singing along.\u00a0 Michael Sweet addressed the crowd thanking everyone for coming out and selling the place out and then said, \u201cAs you can see.\u00a0 We\u2019re playing To Hell With the Devil in its entirety but on the album, there wasn\u2019t all this talking in between songs so we\u2019re gonna keep this thing going.\u201d\u00a0 Stryper then launched into \u201cFree\u201d which took the whole night to a new level as the band stepped up the game and re-set the bar.<\/p>\n

Before going into \u201cHonestly\u201d, Michael Sweet said, \u201cThe 80\u2019s were a big time for the power ballad.\u00a0 We all had them but we didn\u2019t do one because we had to.\u00a0 We did one because we grew up loving bands like Journey and Styx.\u00a0 This one was a huge hit for us so we hope you\u2019ll sing with us.\u00a0 While I can honestly (ha, see what I did there) say I\u2019ve never liked this song, hearing the audience sing every word back to the band gave me chills and hearing Michael\u2019s amazing vocals on this track was something to really see.<\/p>\n

Stryper performed the rest of To Hell with the Devil but the show stoppers without a doubt of this portion of the show was \u201cSing Along Song\u201d and \u201cThe Way.\u201d\u00a0 On \u201cThe Way\u201d, Stryper sounded like the ultimate power metal band.\u00a0 From Michael Sweet\u2019s soaring vocals to Robert Sweet\u2019s dynamic drumming and Tim Gaines\u2019 massive bass playing, this was the song where I felt like Stryper poured it all out onto the stage.\u00a0 The ripping dual leads between Michael Sweet and guitarist Oz Fox is the kind of stuff that guitar heroes are made of.\u00a0 Why these guys aren\u2019t respected and recognized for their greatness as much as they should be is an absolute mystery to me.<\/p>\n

Stryper was clearly having a great time on stage as they goofed with each other, smiled, and bantered back and forth.\u00a0 The classic Stryper bibles were tossed out to the crowd (sorry King Diamond but nobody\u2019s eye got put out) and picks a plenty were tossed as well.\u00a0 After completing the To Hell with the Devil album, the band exited the stage and returned for another set of obscure, deep cut songs.\u00a0 Newer songs like \u201cYahweh\u201d, \u201cGod\u201d, and \u201cRevelation\u201d stood strong alongside the classic numbers in a truly remarkable way.\u00a0 These new songs not only showed that they can still write and deliver as good as they always have but that the older material still sounds as fresh and as exciting as if they were just released last year.<\/p>\n

Stryper closed things out with \u201cSoldiers Under Command” and for the encore had the fans pick one of six songs via a mobile app.\u00a0 To my surprise, the reigning choice was \u201cReach Out\u201d which I have never heard live.\u00a0 Everyone was singing along, smiles on their faces, and just throwing every bit of energy they had right back to the band.\u00a0 \u00a0As I surveyed the crowd, I even saw Rich Ward of Fozzy\/Stuck Mojo, in the crowd, fists in the air singing along every word to \u201cReach Out.\u201d\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t have kicked the smile off that dude\u2019s face and trust me, I knew how that felt as I was doing just the same.<\/p>\n

30 years later, not only does To Hell with the Devil stand as strong and solid as ever but Stryper as a band seems virtually untouched by time.\u00a0 The hair may be a bit thinner and the waists may be a bit bigger but one thing that hasn\u2019t change with age was their desire, their passion, and their pure love for playing the music that they have made over the years.\u00a0 Stryper is without a doubt like a fine wine that has aged with grace and only grown more sweet and more powerful and tasteful as they\u2019ve gotten older.\u00a0 This was hands down one of the greatest live shows I have ever seen and I\u2019m sure that sentiment is shared with the other 900 people who were in attendance that night as well.\u00a0 It was a truly magical night and it just makes me even more excited to see and hear what lies ahead for Stryper as their best years are very much still ahead of them.<\/p>\n

[srizonfbalbum id=2]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stryper September 29, 2016 Atlanta, GA Center Stage Theater Let me just get this out of the way first.\u00a0 For over 30 years, Stryper has taken all kinds of shit from the metal community.\u00a0 Nobody seems to give King Diamond or Watain a hard time for their religious beliefs so why should Stryper get shit for theirs?\u00a0 Ok, in all honesty, Satan is probably a cooler looking deity with all kinds of pointy stars and shit while Christianity has a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[1041,1627],"class_list":["post-16564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert-reviews","tag-stryper","tag-to-hell-with-the-devil-30"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16564","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=16564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}