Stryper
Seven
Hollywood Records
For the past decade, there has been a lack of the Yellow & Black Attack. But now they're back, so don't gimme no slack, Jack. Okay, enough rhyming, this is an 18 track "Best Of" compilation which contains two brand new tracks. There's no sense really covering all the tracks, since if you're reading this, you're already a fan and have all their releases anyways, so I'll just cover the new songs. Both tracks have a new modern rock feel as opposed to the metal they played back in their big-hair days of the 80's. When I listened to these songs, I noticed the verses were grungy sounding, but one listen to the chorus and it swirls around in your head for the next couple days. That's what
Stryper was always great at doing, creating those big memorable choruses, and they do it exceedingly well here. The guitar solos are a bit laid back, and so is the rhythm section. Michael's vocals are great as ever. The material isn't ear piercing metal, but it is catchier than a SARS outbreak in Hong Kong. Hard prog rock would be a better category for this.
The rest of the disc contains a few tracks of each of their releases in reverse chronological order...except for the last track which is "Believe" from
Can't Stop The Rock. Don't know why it's the last song when it should have probably been Track 3, but who am I to say how they list their songs. Over an hour of 80's air guitar and drum pounding nostalgia. I'm not sure if the guys are getting back together, but if they do...PLAY METAL AGAIN!!! On a sidenote, I recently saw
Stryper on tour for this release and they rocked hard. They haven't lost their touch.
