On Halloween night, while children dressed up in their favorite character or scary costumes and went door to door trick or treating, I was walking into the Plaza Theater in El Paso, TX. The Plaza Theater was built in 1930. A well-known landmark in downtown El Paso has a seating capacity of 2,050 people. When it was built it was considered the largest of its kind from Los Angeles to Dallas. Fine carvings, red velvet carpets and gold trim lines the walls and floors. The night that I was there I had the pleasure of capturing a Christian Heavy Metal band, Stryper.
Emerging out of the Southern California night club scene as Roxx Regime brothers Michael Sweet, Robert Sweet and Oz Fox, Eric Johnson. The band wanted to change their musical message to reflect their Christian beliefs, and the band’s name was changed to Stryper. Their current line up is original members Michael Sweet, Robert Sweet, and Oz Fox with Perry Richardson. The name comes from a scripture in the bible Isaiah 53:5, which is the motto they live by. “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.” The battle is real and they are up for the fight. While they were standing by their faith, they actually gained respect from the music world, many heavy metal bands accepted them and asked them to open for their shows. They regularly opened for Ratt and Bon Jovi, always asked to perform at festivals. This did come with criticism and controversy questioning them being a Christian band. But their message comes through their music as their albums sold millions of copies and people listened to what they had to say.
Stryper was the second Christian band to get any airplay on MTV with the popular song “Honestly,” with the group DeGarmo and Key being the first with their song “Six, Six, Six.” Mainstream music media supported their rise. “Honestly” was their high charting single making 23 on the top 40 charts. The album being their third released in 1986, “To Hell with the Devil,” went on to platinum selling over 2 million copies. Their fourth album, “In God with Trust” went Gold. “In God We Trust” captured two GMA Dove Awards for “Hard Music Album” and “Hard Music Song” for the title track. In 2011, Stryper won the reader’s choice award for Best Christian / Gospel Artists & Bands. With 10 million records sold it was determined that two thirds of the albums were bought by non-Christian fans. Showing that they were as popular as main stream artist at the time.
The band often wear yellow and black striped outfits and their guitars and bass are adorned, as well, in yellow and white stripes. They also still throw copies of the New Testament with their logo on the cover into the crowd. The concert opened with a light show while a recording plays “Battle Hymn of the Republic” As the band entered the stage, cheers and yelling erupted in the venue. They opened with the song “Loud n Clear” from the “Second Coming” album released in 2013 followed up with “You know What to Do,” they gave us a grand tour of their discography. As I was walking out, I noticed that the 2,000 plus seat venue was about half full which was impressive for a Halloween night with so many other activities going on. It was a great pleasure to see that Stryper is still going strong after my introduction to them when I was a radio announcer in a Christian radio station and spun their album on a turntable. Now, we can find them on streaming sites everywhere. Check out these links to find out more about the band Stryper.
https://www.facebook.com/Stryper
https://www.instagram.com/stryper
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