Christian rockers STRYPER entered the studio in late April to begin recording their first-ever full-length Christmas album. The 10-song effort will include five original Christmas tracks and five traditional Christmas cuts, including remakes of “Reason For The Season” and “Winter Wonderland”, both of which originally appeared on a 1985 single and were also made available on the 1986 re-release of STRYPER‘s debut EP, “The Yellow And Black Attack”.
Earlier today, STRYPER released the first single from the upcoming Christmas LP, a song called “Still The Light”. Just in time for Christmas in July, the track also arrives alongside an official lyric video, available below.
STRYPER frontman Michael Sweet comments on the track: “STRYPER fans worldwide have wanted a Christmas record for 40+ years. Now we can say that we have finally made this a reality. With the first single, ‘Still The Light’ — let’s celebrate Christmas in July and acknowledge that Jesus will always be The Reason For The Season!!”
In a recent interview with Jorge Pozo of LotsOfMuzik, Michael stated about the upcoming STRYPER Christmas album: “It is awesome. Oh my gosh. We’re so excited about this one.”
Asked which songs will be included on the record, Michael said: “We’ve got five traditional Christmas songs on it. We did a remake of ‘Winter Wonderland’ and then we did a version of ‘Silent Night’, a version of ‘The Little Drummer Boy’, ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’, which is not one that’s been covered a lot, which is cool, and it is considered a Christmas hymn. And then also ‘Joy To The World’. So we’ve got those five songs, and then we did a remake of ‘Reason For The Season’, made it sound more today. It’s still the same arrangement, but obviously with new tones. It sounds bigger and thicker and heavier. And then we did four new original Christmas songs: ‘Greatest Gift Of All’, ‘On This Holy Night’, ‘Still The Light’ and — what’s the other one? I’m trying to think. It’s slipping my mind right now. It’ll come to me. Anyway, we’re really, really, really pleased with how this one turned out, man. It’s really cool. It’s gonna be a great album.”
Regarding which of the songs on the Christmas album he feels “most connected to”, Sweet said: “Probably the new stuff. I love the traditional stuff and it was awesome and fun doing that, but I always feel a little more connected with new material ’cause it’s a little more exciting and hasn’t been done before. So it’s new territory.”
Asked what he meant when he wrote in a social media post that the STRYPER Christmas album has “a unique signature”, Michael said: “Well, I mean it definitely has a very unique signature. We didn’t really plan it this way, but it has this really great merge of classic — it’s got that undeniable classic sound to it, STRYPER classic sound, but yet at the same time it’s got that undeniable modern-era STRYPER sound too, because we’re tuned down to D now. So the guitars are a little thicker and things sound a little bigger and heavier. So it’s got the perfect merge in combination of classic and modern. Something else we did — for example, we did every single solo in harmony. So every solo, every note is in harmony, which is a first. We’ve never done that on any album. But the minute you hear those harmony guitar solos, that’s a very STRYPER signature sound. So you get lots of that on this album. It’s really cool, man. It’s exciting, and I can’t wait for people to hear it. We have a new song called ‘On This Holy Night’. It’s very heavy musically — dark. It sounds almost like [BLACK] SABBATH. And it’s got this cool vibe to it and such a great message about how we worldwide really more often make Christmas about everything but Jesus. So that’s the message, and it’s a cool message. And then we’ve got an uptempo song called ‘The Greatest Gift Of All’. It’s almost kind of a little GREEN DAY-slash-BLINK-182 sounding, and it’s just this power-pop metal, slightly punk vibe to it. It’s really cool. So it’s got some new flavors to it that I think people are gonna like and appreciate.”
On the topic of whether there were any challenges balancing the STRYPER sound with the traditional sound of the songs on the Christmas record, Michael said: “No. Not at all. It just all came together so naturally. As you know, we did remakes, re-recordings of ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘Reason For The Season’. So we tried to stay true to the original form. The only difference is they’ll both be tuned down a half a step, and ‘Winter Wonderland’, we didn’t do the joking around in the beginning. Because we felt like that was something that you shouldn’t touch. That was with Tim [Gaines, original STRYPER bassist] and that was a spontaneous, fun thing. And we didn’t wanna go down that road and try to mimic that; that could have been real corny. But other than that, it’s the same arrangements. And the other traditional songs sound killer. ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ is powerful. It’s a really good album, and we’re excited. We’ve been talking about a Christmas album since 1985, believe it or not.”
As for when fans can expect the STRYPER Christmas album to come out, Michael said: “Definitely this year… The album itself may come out in October, certainly by November… Frontiers [Music Srl] will be releasing it worldwide. It will be available for all. And it’s gonna be awesome, man. It’s such a cool thing.”
He continued: “Like I said, [it’s] very exciting for us, ’cause we’ve been seriously talking about this for a long time. The reason why it hasn’t happened is because of our schedules. It’s just there hasn’t been a good time to do it. So this time I brought it up to the label in a Zoom meeting. They agreed it would be a good idea, and we just made it happen. We’re, like, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go do it right now.’ And we got in the studio quickly, and we’re gonna release it this year. And from now on, it’s not talk — it’s actually going to be reality.”
STRYPER guitarist Oz Fox is sitting out the band’s ongoing Latin American tour on advice of his doctor. The 64-year-old musician, who underwent a brain surgery in May 2024, is once again being temporarily replaced by Howie Simon (JEFF SCOTT SOTO, GRAHAM BONNET),who previously filled in for Fox on several tours in the past.
STRYPER‘s latest studio album, “When We Were Kings”, came out in September 2024.
The band recently completed the U.S. leg of its 40th-anniversary tour, which was described as “a celebration of both classic hits and new-era fan favorites, including outfit changes and an exciting new show production.”
In December 2023, Michael underwent partial thyroidectomy, the surgery to remove part of his thyroid gland. It is the most common surgery for thyroid cancer.
Formed 41 years ago, STRYPER‘s name comes from Isaiah 53:5, which states: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
STRYPER‘s other albums include “To Hell With The Devil”, “Second Coming”, “No More Hell To Pay”, “Fallen”, “God Damn Evil”, “Even The Devil Believes” and “The Final Battle”.
Content shared from blabbermouth.net.