STRYPER Is Almost Done Recording New Album

STRYPER finished recording all the basic tracks for its new album (everything except lead vocals and lead guitar solos) a few days ago. According to frontman Michael Sweet, "it went much faster than expected and it sounds absolutely killer! We were all just having fun making music again with a new spirit and attitude. It felt like 1985 all over again. There's a new groove to the music that has to be experienced, not described."

He continued: "We're all incredibly excited and feel that this may very well be the best album we've ever recorded. It's very special and has an energy unlike any other. We can't wait for you to hear it. April can't come soon enough."

Sweet recently told ListenIowa that both the title and the lyrics of the title track of STRYPER's follow-up to 2015's "Fallen" album will be "shocking" to STRYPER fans — "moreso than with 'To Hell With The Devil'. When people hear it, they're going to go, 'What? Can you tell me that again?'" he said. "A lot of the lyrics on the album have been kind of therapeutic, coming from the last two or three years." As for the music, he described it as "straight-up STRYPER and a little AC/DC and a little [JUDAS] PRIEST in a blender… It's an anthem with a straight-ahead, memorable, sing-along chorus, and people will be like, 'Yes!'"

STRYPER's upcoming album will be the band's first since the addition of former FIREHOUSE bassist Perry Richardson. Perry joined the band as the replacement for STRYPER's longtime bassist Tim Gaines, who was fired from the group earlier this year.

Gaines's exit from STRYPER had been rumored for months, ever since guitarist Oz Fox revealed that Tim was going through a divorce, forcing the group to take a hiatus and possibly consider a future without the bassist.

Gaines told KNAC.COM in August that "all hell broke loose" after he split up with his previous wife, "which is taboo as far as Christianity, I guess." He added: "I'm not the only guy in STRYPER to have gotten a divorce. Everybody in the band is married to divorced people. And I'm the bad guy, but everybody else has done it too, so? Whatever. Live in glass houses and everything will be exposed at some point or another."

A few days later, the remaining members of STRYPER released a statement denying that Gaines's divorce was a factor in their decision to part ways with the bassist and blaming Tim's "erratic and hostile behavior" for his dismissal from the group.