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Uberreiniger in "Fun With Stryper!"
Apr. 18th, 2011 03:12 pmAs I mentioned in my last post Stryper have released an album of cover songs. Since ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
megiloth kindly let me listen to the whole thing I am going to make you read how I feel about.
First, a little history. Stryper are a band whose lasting musical legacy will be that they have caused the following dialogue to take place millions of times around the world:
Person #1: I listen to Christian metal.
Person #2: Oh, you mean like Stryper?
Person #1: No. Not like Stryper.
Stryper derive their name from the Bible verse Isaiah 53:5 which Christians interpret as a prophecy of Christ's torture at the hands of the Romans, specifically the "stripes" received from scourging. Early in their career, Stryper got rather expressionistic with their interpretation of these wounds, covering themselves, their instruments, and their stage sets with yellow and black stripes. Now I'll be the first to admit that I loved Stryper's image, the "yellow and black attack" as it was called. I just never saw what it had to do with Christ's wounds. Perhaps the Isaiah verse was just a happy coincidence that sort of lined up with Stryper being science fiction warriors from the future.
Fun trivia: the only other band I know of from the 80's who tried to pass themselves off as science fiction warriors from the future were Queensryche. Queensryche eventually dropped the act and went on to record the greatest rock opera since the time when Roger Waters decided to tell the world about a teacher he had as a child who was very aggressive in his promotion of a diet rich in animal proteins.
Stryper dropped the act and went on to record Against the Law.
Since then Stryper have wisely put the the yellow and black back on and returned to their solidly rocking roots. (Queensryche, pay attention. You could learn a thing or two here.) But then they had to go and release The Covering. Okay, I'm being hard on them because it's not bad. It's very competent. But... I didn't find it noteworthy either.
Imagine you are running late for a birthday party for a friend and you haven't bought them a gift yet. In a panic, you stop at Wal-Mart and find a $5 compilation cd of "Hard Rockin' Hits of the 80's." Knowing your friend likes this kind of music, you praise your unbelievable luck at finding this even though you know nothing of this style of music yourself. So you hurriedly scrape off the $5 sticker and present it to them, waiting to see their eyes light up.
But something's wrong. In an effort to keep the cost of royalties low and pass the savings on to you, these are not the original recordings by the original artist. They are covers by a competent but otherwise unmemorable group of session musicians. Take one of these cd's (which do exist by the way. I've seen them,) triple the price, and you have Stryper's The Covering.
When you record and release a cover song I feel like you should at least try to bring something different to it. It doesn't have to be anything as drastic as turning a Slayer song into a haunting, eerie piano ballad. or reinterpreting Metallica through the lens of wimpy dance pop. But at least make some kind of effort to make the song your own. Stryper don't even sound like Stryper on this album. They sound like any one of a thousand cover bands you could hear in a thousand bars playing songs you've heard covered a thousand times before. Iron Maiden's "The Trooper"? Gee, that's original. Why doesn't somebody cover "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" every once in a while? Oh goodie, Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son." Well I guess I should be grateful it wasn't "Dust in the Wind."
I have taken a lot of time and energy here to say that I expected better, Stryper. I can't help it. I just think it's a brutal irony that the band who made Jesus relevant to a generation of metalheads cannot come back twenty-some years later and do the same thing for the works of Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest.
megiloth kindly let me listen to the whole thing I am going to make you read how I feel about.First, a little history. Stryper are a band whose lasting musical legacy will be that they have caused the following dialogue to take place millions of times around the world:
Person #1: I listen to Christian metal.
Person #2: Oh, you mean like Stryper?
Person #1: No. Not like Stryper.
Stryper derive their name from the Bible verse Isaiah 53:5 which Christians interpret as a prophecy of Christ's torture at the hands of the Romans, specifically the "stripes" received from scourging. Early in their career, Stryper got rather expressionistic with their interpretation of these wounds, covering themselves, their instruments, and their stage sets with yellow and black stripes. Now I'll be the first to admit that I loved Stryper's image, the "yellow and black attack" as it was called. I just never saw what it had to do with Christ's wounds. Perhaps the Isaiah verse was just a happy coincidence that sort of lined up with Stryper being science fiction warriors from the future.
Fun trivia: the only other band I know of from the 80's who tried to pass themselves off as science fiction warriors from the future were Queensryche. Queensryche eventually dropped the act and went on to record the greatest rock opera since the time when Roger Waters decided to tell the world about a teacher he had as a child who was very aggressive in his promotion of a diet rich in animal proteins.
Stryper dropped the act and went on to record Against the Law.
Since then Stryper have wisely put the the yellow and black back on and returned to their solidly rocking roots. (Queensryche, pay attention. You could learn a thing or two here.) But then they had to go and release The Covering. Okay, I'm being hard on them because it's not bad. It's very competent. But... I didn't find it noteworthy either.
Imagine you are running late for a birthday party for a friend and you haven't bought them a gift yet. In a panic, you stop at Wal-Mart and find a $5 compilation cd of "Hard Rockin' Hits of the 80's." Knowing your friend likes this kind of music, you praise your unbelievable luck at finding this even though you know nothing of this style of music yourself. So you hurriedly scrape off the $5 sticker and present it to them, waiting to see their eyes light up.
But something's wrong. In an effort to keep the cost of royalties low and pass the savings on to you, these are not the original recordings by the original artist. They are covers by a competent but otherwise unmemorable group of session musicians. Take one of these cd's (which do exist by the way. I've seen them,) triple the price, and you have Stryper's The Covering.
When you record and release a cover song I feel like you should at least try to bring something different to it. It doesn't have to be anything as drastic as turning a Slayer song into a haunting, eerie piano ballad. or reinterpreting Metallica through the lens of wimpy dance pop. But at least make some kind of effort to make the song your own. Stryper don't even sound like Stryper on this album. They sound like any one of a thousand cover bands you could hear in a thousand bars playing songs you've heard covered a thousand times before. Iron Maiden's "The Trooper"? Gee, that's original. Why doesn't somebody cover "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" every once in a while? Oh goodie, Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son." Well I guess I should be grateful it wasn't "Dust in the Wind."
I have taken a lot of time and energy here to say that I expected better, Stryper. I can't help it. I just think it's a brutal irony that the band who made Jesus relevant to a generation of metalheads cannot come back twenty-some years later and do the same thing for the works of Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest.
