Stryper To Tackle Maiden, Priest, Ozzy On Album

Stryper have revealed that they will release a covers album later this year.

In a post on the band’s official website Michael Sweet revealed the reasons for the album:

"Hey Everyone, Just as promised, I wanted to outline some more details regarding the new Stryper record. We grew up listening to many different styles of music and there is a list of bands that influenced us throughout our musical education. Bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Van Halen, UFO, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Kansas and many others, helped to shape our sound and make us who we are today, musically speaking.

"We grew up on the streets of LA playing every club in town from Gazzari's to The Whisky to The Troubadour to you name it. We played covers from all the bands mentioned above and we shaped our own sound from listening and performing songs from these classic bands.

"We wanted to step outside the box and record a record that shows you, the fans, where we come from - our historical, musical roots so to speak. It's a side to Stryper that no one has really seen or heard before, or at least quite like this. We performed "On Fire" by Van Halen on a few tours and we also performed "Breaking The Law" by Priest on this last tour. The response was far beyond our expectations each time we performed these songs. People seemed genuinely surprised to hear Stryper cover these songs and even more surprised to hear Stryper perform these songs relatively well. This will be an opportunity for Robert, Oz, Tim and myself to loosen up and have some fun.”

Sweet will be revealing the names of the songs that will be included on the album via his Twitter account over the coming weeks.

So far the songs revealed include:

Breaking The Law – Judas Priest
The Trooper – Iron Maiden
Blackout – Scorpions
Over The Mountain – Ozzy Osbourne
Set Me Free - Sweet