Murder By Pride: The Review

Murder By Pride Is Stryper’s Seargant Pepper

In the 25+ year evolution of Stryper, they’ve gone through roughly 4 phases.

The Yellow & Black Attack

In phase I you had Classic Stryper, encompassing The Yellow & Black Attack and Soldiers Under Command. The sound, early 80’s guitar driven metal, well composed raw music that stood out amoungst the best of the best Hollywood bands.

In Phase II you have what was (previously) highly regarded as Stryper’s elemental albums, To Hell With The Devil. THWTD is full of killer commercial and metal tracks that catapulted Stryper into music history. At the forefront was Honestly, Stryper’s breakthrough hit. Then In God We Trust, regarded by many as THWTD II, was an evolution of the original with even more highly produced commercial tracks. But, the success created a tipping point for Stryper, that entered them into a long, tumultuous era.

Here, in Phase III, there’s Against the Law AND Reborn, both of which I regard as transitional Stryper albums. Against The Law was an attempt to move away from the perfectionistic IGWT, and Reborn an attempt to evolve the Stryper sound into a new millennium. While both have some stand out memorable tracks, and though they were recorded a good 10 years apart, they both stand out as excellent work. But, at the same time both are departures from the Stryper sound that many came to know and love dearly.

Murder By Pride, the fourth phase and most prolific album by Stryper marks a true new era for fans old and new. Stryper becomes a legend with the release of this album.

Murder By Pride is Stryper’s Seargant Pepper.

To be continued…