Stryper frontman Michael Sweet recently spoke with BraveWords scribe Carl Begai about the band’s rejuvenated career and their new album, Fallen. An excerpt from the story is available below:

“Fallen is a little bit of a departure for Stryper, and that’s what I like about it instantly better than No More Hell To Pay,” Sweet admits. “And I love No More Hell To Pay; that’s a Stryper album I can actually listen to from start to finish. I can’t listen to The Yellow And Black Attack, In God We Trust or Against The Law. I won’t call those three albums masterpieces because I don’t think they are. If you ask me what the Stryper masterpieces are, I would say Soldiers Under Command, To Hell With The Devil, and No More Hell To Pay. Those are my three epic Best Of Stryer albums. I can easily say add Fallen to that list.”

“The thing I like about Fallen is the sonic quality of it. We did something different by going to an analog console in the digital realm, and it added something in the low end department that No More Hell To Pay doesn’t have. This is a beefier sounding album, I like the flow of it, and it’s a little more focused in terms of the direction. I’m so pleased with the road that we’re on right now.”

Which is reminiscent of the band’s anthem-oriented To Hell With The Devil days.

“Exactly. I can’t wait to do another album (laughs). And I’m actually going to start work in a few weeks on a solo album. It should come out in April or May next year. I’m going real old school with that one; no keyboards, no big background vocals, guitar driven, metal a la ‘Run To The Hills’. It’s going to be really different for a Michael Sweet solo album. It’s the sort of thing where it’s really what I want to do, and I’m kinda tired of hearing ‘I like your solo stuff but the Stryper stuff is way heavier…’ for the past 20 years. This solo album is going to be as heavy or heavier than Stryper. Imagine when you heard ‘Yahweh’ the first time; every song on my solo album is going to be that epic kinda stuff.”

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With the October 16th release of their ninth studio album, Fallen, Stryper continues to dominate the hard rock/heavy metal scene. The release sold over 10,000 copies in the US during the first week of release landing at #2 on the Top Hard Music Albums chart, #2 on the Top Contemporary Christian Albums chart, #2 on Billboard’s Top Christian/Gospel Albums, #5 on the Top Current Rock Albums chart, #20 on the Top Current Physical Albums chart, #26 on the Top Current Albums chart, #29 on the Top Current Digital Albums chart and #44 on the Billboard Top 200.

In addition, Fallen soared to #1 on the iTunes Top Metal Albums chart and #3 on the iTunes Top Rock Albums chart immediately upon release.

"We are truly blessed to still be making music 32 years into our careers, music that relates and speaks to our fans worldwide,” says frontman and album producer, Michael Sweet. “We strive to outdo ourselves with each release and hopefully we've done that with Fallen. Here's to 32 more years!"

Fallen tracklisting:

"Yahweh" "Fallen" "Pride" "Big Screen Lies" "Heaven" "Love You Like I Do" "All Over Again" "After Forever" (Black Sabbath cover) "Till I Get What I Need" "Let There Be Light" "The Calling" "King Of Kings"

“Pride” video:

EPK:

"Big Screen Lies”:

“Fallen”: