Stryper

Hailing from Los Angeles, California, Christian metal band Stryper was founded in 1983 by brothers Michael Sweet (vocals, guitar) and Robert Sweet (drums), accompanied by Tim Gaines (bass) and Oz Fox (guitar). A pioneer of the genre, they dominated the 1980s with their glam influences. After their debut album Soldiers Under Command(1985), their follow-up To Hell with the Devil (1986) went platinum, and In God We Trust (1988) went gold. After another successful album, Against the Law (1990), tensions within the band led to its split. However, history was not written, and in 2005 Stryper made a comeback with the aptly-named Reborn, featuring Tracy Ferrie in place of Tim Gaines. Although they didn't recapture the glory of the 1980s, the band remained present on the sales charts with successive albums Murder by Pride (2009), The Covering (2011), Second Coming and No More Hell to Pay (2013) and Fallen (2015), which reached number 44 on the Billboard 200. With a new bassist since 2017, Perry Richardson, Stryper continues with God Damn Evil (2018), Even the Evil Believes (2020), The Final Battle (2022) and When We Were Kings (2024), the twentieth studio album in forty years of practice.