Cover albums don’t generally have legs, save for the diehard fans of the band or artist in question. When the record serves up a tracklist of done-to-death rock and metal classics it’s a double-edged sword; curiosity is piqued on the one hand, but it’s often accompanied by a lingering sense of “Why bother?” Thus, when Stryper announced in February 2010 they were going to pay tribute to the likes of Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and a host of equally familiar names, the buzz that followed wasn’t altogether positive. When it came time to try The Covering on for size, however, there was a resounding clatter of jaws hitting the floor. Nobody expected Stryper, of all bands, to come stomping through the front door and make a treasure chest of metal classics their own.

Well aware of the skepticism surrounding the venture, frontman Michael Sweet remains adamant about the band’s reasons for choosing the songs for The Covering. The tracklist ultimately came down to the songs Sweet and his bandmates liked growing up. And in the case of rearranging parts of Iron Maiden’s ‘The Trooper’ and adding guitar shred to ‘Highway Star’, Stryper succeeds in putting their own spin on things without screwing up the works.

“We definitely wanted to beef all of them up,” Sweet says of the tracks. “I agree with you about ‘Highway Star’; it was always one of my favourite songs but I always wondered what it would sound like with a Mesa Boogie on it (laughs). So, to do it like that was a lot of fun. It was the same thing with a lot of the songs, like ‘Set Me Free’. The version on The Covering punches you right in the face. We wanted to step them up in the production sense and I think we accomplished that. As far as the songs themselves, the originals are so untouchable, how do you improve upon them? We didn’t try to better the originals, we tried to pay respect and stay true to them rather than changing them so much that people say ‘What song is this?’ I don’t like covers that do that, but that’s just my opinion. We wanted to put our own little flavours on the songs without being disrespectful, and I think somehow miraculously we may have pulled that off.”

The Covering features a tweaking of Stryper’s sound, not just that of the songs. Following their return in 2005 with Reborn, there was a call for the band to bring back the guitar solos and vocal acrobatics of the Soldiers Under Command and To Hell With The Devil eras. The band succeeded admirably with Murder By Pride in 2009, but The Covering is full to overflowing with those missing elements. According to Sweet it wasn’t an accident.

“It’s because the songs really called for that. If you back and listen to the original versions of most of those songs, you’ll hear lots of guitar and high-end vocals. Plus, we’re trying to get back to the things that people expect from Stryper. If you’re always wrestling to be artistic, sometimes you lose sight of what made you popular to begin with, and we realized that the twin harmony guitar solos, trading off solos, the high-end vocals, the background vocals, that’s all stuff people expect to hear from us.”

It all comes to a head on the lone Stryper original, ‘God’, which closes the album. Nowhere near being a ballad, and again, no accident.

“And that’s why we did it, not only musically but lyrically as well. We wanted to show the naysayers and people that doubt our faith because we did an album of covers that we’re as serious about our faith – even more so – as we always were. Here you go.”

Since their inception Stryper’s members have dealt with considerable flak for mixing religion with their metal. They’ve also taken a surprising amount of stick from their Christian message-oriented followers. Twenty-one years ago the band was slagged by this group for dropping their trademark yellow and black attack image for Against The Law in favour of a grittier look and sound, all in the interest of commercial acceptance according to the disgruntled legion. News of The Covering’s theme had the same diehards up in arms, claiming once again that Stryper was straying from their faith. A surprising turn of events considering the songs covered are responsible for Stryper’s existence in the first place.

“The thing that always strikes me as being odd, and it’s just the society we live in, is the way people behave. We’re quick to judge without having the facts. I tend to be this way as well. Stryper has never stepped away from our faith. We’ve gone through some tough times, but we’ve always carried the torch and we always will. I just wish that, for once with this band, people could just listen to the music. Just listen to the music and tell us if you like it or not. I don’t know if that’s possible with this band. People have stereotypes and have put Stryper in categories and boxes for so long, I think that’s the way it’s going to stay.”

“We do things differently but that doesn’t mean we’re wolves in sheep’s clothing, as we’ve been called,” Sweet adds. “We’re not called to be a contemporary Christian band that’s going out to the churches; that’s never been our calling. Our calling is to go out to the clubs and the places where people who don’t know Christ are going to go. We go out and perform our music for them, and hopefully we’re a light in the dark for those people.”

Fellow journalist Joel Gausten cited Stryper’s cover of the “evil” Black Sabbath's classic ‘Heaven And Hell’ as potential for a few religion-or-death Stryper fans to spontaneously combust, even though the song is clearly a tale about choosing between good and evil.

“They’re not listening,” says Sweet. “I think they make up their minds that the song was written with this or that in mind, but they just don’t know. You don’t know what Ronnie James Dio was thinking when he penned those lyrics.”

The Covering is also noteworthy for being the first Stryper album in 20 years to feature all four original members even though they've been touring as a unit since 2009. Drummer Robert Sweet did not play on previous outing Murder By Pride due to personal issues, and bassist Tim Gaines returned to the fold only after the album was recorded.

“On this album it’s all 100% Robert,” says Sweet, aware his brother’s absence threw the fans for a loop. “I’ve said this in a few interviews and I’ll keep saying it, I think Robert and Tim are the two performers on this album that really kick you in the butt. The guitars are cool, the vocals are cool, but the two hidden gems are Rob and Tim. They did an outstanding job and they really deliver.”

Given that The Covering is a journey down Stryper’s personal memory lane, it’s safe to say the album wouldn’t have had the same vibe without Sweet’s brother or Gaines involved.

“It certainly wouldn’t have come out the same way. Absolutely not. Tim brought a lot to the table on this album, so it wouldn’t have been remotely the same without him. That goes for any one of us. As far as whether we would have done this album, I don’t know. Maybe; I couldn’t tell you. We had been leaning towards doing a cover album for a while based on the covers we do live, like ‘Breaking The Law’ and ‘On Fire’ years ago. My wife had said that we would do a great job on a cover album, and that got the wheels spinning. It was in the works for a while prior to committing to actually doing it.”

Since the release of The Covering, rumours of a full length album of all original songs set for release late this year have been making the rounds. Sweet says this isn’t the case, although there are plans to head back to the studio.

“Not a new studio album. We may do some recording this year, but we’re not sure. It all depends on the amount of work and touring that we’re going to be doing. We’re talking about doing a re-record album of all the old classic Stryper songs, for a multitude of reasons. For one thing, we signed a publishing deal and it would be nice to have new versions of those songs. Reason #2; I think people would be interested in hearing modern versions of the songs. I don’t mean completely rearranging them; just imagine ‘Soldiers Under Command’ with the sound quality of The Covering. That’s what we’re thinking, because it would be amazing. I don’t know when it’ll happen, though.”
“We’d also like to do an all original album very soon, but I can’t see it happening this year. Then again, you never know.”