Kev Rowland
Towards the end of the Eighties I became aware of a growing White Metal movement in America, led by Petra and Stryper. I particularly liked the latter, while my sister went for bands like Joshua and Bloodgood. So, although I haven’t come across any of their music for a long time I am aware of these guys, and know the impact of their second album ‘Detonation’ when they became one of the few WM bands ever to sell a million copies of an album. This is their first album for a considerable number of years, but founder members singer Les Carlsen and bassist Michael Bloodgood are still there, along with guitarists Paul Jackson (who joined at the end of the Eighties) and Oz Fox who joined in ’06 (yes, this is the same Oz Fox who is a founder member of Stryper and still plays with them after 30 years). Strangely, although their website shows a five man line-up there are no details as to who plays drums on this album, so I don’t know if there has been a recent change in the band.
But what about the music? Is it likely to have the same impact as they did when they first burst onto the scene in 1986? Well, no. This is middle of the road hard rock with some melodic metal elements – in some ways it reminds me of Magnum, but without the complexity. Everything is, well, pleasant. But, it does have to be remembered that the target audience here are not going to be your every day metalheads, but rather Christians who want something a bit more vibrant than Larry Norman. This is sanitised even by American standards, with lyrics that are pushing the Christian message throughout, and with song titles such as “Pray”, “Lamb of God” and “The Word” there isn’t going to be much confusion as to what this is about. One thing I used to like about Stryper is that their songs were great songs, with hooks and melodies, but this seems to concentrate more on the message and less about the quality. www.bloodgoodband.com