STRYPER Frontman Says People Who Liked 'The Covering' Will Love 'Second Coming'

Christian hard rockers STRYPER will release a collection of re-recorded versions of the band's classic songs on March 22 via Frontiers Records. Entitled "Second Coming", the CD will contain a total of 16 cuts — two from "The Yellow And Black Attack", six from "Soldiers Under Command", six from "To Hell With The Devil", as well as two new tracks, "Bleeding From Inside Out" and "Blackened".

Commented STRYPER frontman Michel Sweet: "Why did we re-record old songs? That's a multiple-answer question.

"First, because we wanted to cut out the middle men and have a little more control over our own songs.

"Second, we wanted to 'fix' some things that have annoyed the 'hell' out of us for the past 30 years such as: no bass in the mix of 'The Yellow And Black Attack' or 'Soldiers Under Command', and no Tim [Gaines, bass] on the mix of 'To Hell With The Devil'. The fact that I sound a little more like a man instead of a helium-induced kid at Disneyland. :-) The sheer joy of still loving these songs and still being able to perform these songs (well, we'll let the experts be the judge of that). And last but not certainly least? We did it just because we wanted to :-)

"So there you go, the mystery is over and the reasons have been revealed.

"Seriously, we're really excited about this record. It's one of the few re-records that I believe will stand against any of the originals if not surpass them.

"If you liked 'The Covering', you'll love 'Second Coming'!"

"Second Coming" track listing:

* Soldiers Under Command
* Makes Me Wanna Sing
* Reach Out
* Loving You
* Loud 'N' Clear
* The Rock That Makes Me Roll
* Calling On You
* First Love
* Surrender
* To Hell With The Devil
* Free
* Sing Along Song
* More Than A Man
* The Way
* Bleeding From Inside Out (new)
* Blackened (new)

"Bleeding From Inside Out" audio clip:

"Blackened" audio clip:

STRYPER's "Live In Indonesia At Java Rockin' Land" DVD was released in October 2012 via MVD Visual. The set was recorded in front of an enthusiastic crowd in 2010.

In a recent interview with Guitar World, Michael Sweet stated about the band's plans for the next studio album, "We're going into this new record with the mentality and thinking of making it like a 'To Hell With The Devil 2'. That's not to say it will actually sound like that album, but we really want it to be as great as 'To Hell With The Devil', which was our biggest album. We want people to put on this record and go; 'Whoa! Wow! This is as good as or better than 'To Hell With The Devil'!' We want the new album to be a powerhouse and we're going to do whatever it takes to make that happen."

STRYPER's covers album, "The Covering", was unlike any previous STRYPER recording in that it was a collection of cover songs from bands that inspired them and helped to shape their sound and musical identity, including hits from JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, LED ZEPPELIN, KANSAS and many others. "The Covering" also included "God", a new original recording from STRYPER.