| Musical Style: Melodic Metal | Produced By: Stephan Galfas & Stryper |
| Record Label: Enigma | Country Of Origin: USA |
| Year Released: 1986 | Artist Website: Stryper |
| Tracks: 11 | Rating: 85% |
| Running Time: 40:54 |
Few eighties melodic metal and hard rock albums offer the near perfect blend of choice songwriting and immaculate production as Enigma Records 1986 third Stryper album To Hell With The Devil. Released in follow up to promising 1984 debut EP The Yellow And Black Attack and well received 1985 sophomore full length Soldiers Under Command (both also Enigma), To Hell With The Devil is brimming of classic material that to this day is revered by fans and critics alike and remains staples to any live set list and/or compilation album. Further cementing the albums legacy is the fact it produced a series of FM radio and MTV hits, which helped it to become the first Christian metal album to achieve platinum status (one million units sold).
I always felt The Yellow And Black Attack production was slightly raw but did a good job capturing the groups youthful energy, while Soldiers Under Command maintained the vitalizing form in accenting a more polished sound. To Hell With The Devil improves upon production with a much bigger budget resulting in higher levels of refinement but not without compromising the underlining Stryper energy. As well it should, particularly in light of how it (as noted in the albums liner notes) was recorded on a Mitsubishi X-850 32-Track Digital Audio Recorder and mixed on a Mitsubishi X-86 2-Track Digital Audio Recorder!
To Hell With The Devil is widely regarded as a Christian metal classic, ranking alongside Bloodgood’s Detonation, Deliverance’s Weapons Of Our Warfare and Bride’s Snakes In The Playground as one of the finest releases of its era. A 2005 countdown at the Christian Metal Realm of the ‘Top 100 Christian Metal Albums Of All Time’, for instance, ranked it first, while a similar list at Heaven’s Metal magazine from 2018 placed it sixth. Angelic Warlord also thinks highly of To Hell With The Devil, noting how we rate it twelfth in an article counting down the top 50 Christian metal albums of the eighties (ahead of SUC at 21st but behind TYABA at 9th). In a similar article outlining the top 10 albums of 1986, To Hell With The Devil was in the fifth position (behind albums from Bloodgood, Saint, Messiah Prophet and Barren Cross).
Album begins to grave minute and half keyboard instrumental "Abyss (To Hell With The Devil)", which segues to its superlative title track. “To Hell With The Devil” is a classic in touching upon the groups heavier side, anthem like with its darkly woven guitars and empowered fortitude but equally passionate in light of the provocative refrain and Michael Sweet’s soaring vocal performance. If not ranking among the better ‘white metal’ songs of its era, “To Hell With The Devil” at very least challenges for the bands finest- in indicator that speaks volumes when factoring a very deep Stryper back catalog with thirteen studio albums to its credit (and counting). Lyric snippet:
Speak of the devil
He's no friend of mine
To turn from him is what we have in mind
Just a liar and a thief
The word tells us so
We like to let him know
Where he can go
To hell with the devil…
Follow up cut “Calling On You” might mirror the commercial facet to Stryper but in my opinion does not quite reach the same heights as “To Hell With The Devil”. With pop metal its calling card, song is awash in layered vocal melodies not to mention radio friendly gloss and polish almost to fault. It correspondingly received its share of accolades in form of a popular MTV video in addition to being a concert favorite. Hope I am not out of line to suggest “Calling On You” is not bad but rather is starting to wear thin- perhaps it is time it be retired in a live setting and replaced with one of the many better songs appearing on any of the six previous Stryper comeback albums.
“Free” trends similar musical territory - I identify with its as melodic hard rock meets metal - but after forty years remains much more fresh and relevant. Fact is in my opinion it is a better song in comparison to “Calling On You”, also adorned in the groups patented vocal melodies but exuding added excitement with its frontwards rhythm guitar and fantastic lead guitar to create an added high-energy spirit. Lyric snippet:
Free to open up - and believe
Free to simply ask - and receive
There's no better time than now
You've got the right to choose
You can't lose - you're...
Free - Free to do what you want to
Choose your own destiny
Free to do what you want to
Stryper has always been a ballad band; hence, inclusion of top 40 hit “Honestly” that helped To Hell With The Devil garner said platinum status. It is not my favorite Stryper ballad - such designation belongs to the classy “Lady” (Against The Law), Scorpions like “Can’t Live Without Your Love” (God Damn Evil) and mega catchy “Betrayed By Love” (When We Were Kings). I even rank the bluesy heavy rocking “First Love” (Soldiers Under Command) over “Honestly”. That said, despite being a bit keyboard heavy, I find “Honestly” a fine work with its moving emotion and applicable to this day message.
A return to the heavier aspect of Stryper with concert favorite and Oz Fox penned “The Way”. Song quickly fades in prior to launching in full force to explosive guitars, Michael Sweet and Fox form as fine a guitar team of the era, while revisiting the darker vestiges of “To Hell With The Devil”, the swarthy backing vocals adorning the refrain speak of the baleful. Fox bestows a stretch of his signature distorted lead guitar. Lyric snippet:
I feel His strength come into me
Reading His word helps me to see
I feel so new, I want to sing
Feeling His joy in everything
Oh - What can I say?
Oh - Christ is the way
Rockin' for the One who is the Rock
Albums second half opens to another album favorite, “Sing-Along Song”. Song embodies Stryper’s partiality for combining addictive melodies with resonant heaviness, uncovered in the endearing ‘whoah oh whoah oh la la’ vocal melodies and slicing guitar driven crunch to underpin. I cannot help but think it had significant hit potential if given the right push. Interestingly, when Stryper redid “Sing-Along Song” for its 2012 re-record album Second Coming, it backed from the original keyboards to create a more stripped down hard rock version to the song.
Back to pop metal territory with “Holding On”. I always identified with its as a companion track to “Calling On You”, which means it does not necessarily fall within filler category with its backing vocal prevalence and commercial layering but also lacks much of the guitar driven gallantry of albums stronger material. Keeping in mind how others might better embrace it, I would much rather prefer another revved up hard rocker…
…which is what Stryper delivers on follow up cut “Rockin’ The World”. Yes, this one is formula with its clichéd title, but go beneath the surface and we have a premium deep cut bursting of vim found in Robert Sweet’s hectic timekeeping and at times rumbled and others dazzling vocal melodies. Rhythm guitar reeks of the knife edged, particularly as song fades over its final seconds. I wish Stryper played to its heavier strengths and delivered a couple more cuts along this line. Lyric snippet:
Singing out what I believe
Singing out for you
Never want to push you can't you see
We just want to spread the news
In a different way
Rock the world but rock it with the truth
Rockin' the world for You, Holy One
Rockin' the world for You, and your Son
Alas, album moves on to its second ballad in “All Of Me”. Not that another ballad is to frowned upon, but rather it is execution in that “All Of Me” is entirely keyboard driven (nary a guitar to be found) with impact an almost lounge style feel. Again, I have no problem again going the ballad route, but why not deliver a Scorpions style hard rock ballad instead?
Good news is To Hell With The Devil closes on a high note with the superlative “More Than A Man”. This one better embodies the vibrant Stryper melodic metal sound, emboldened with its unflinching intrepidity as guitars once more reflect upon darker signatures - at times harmony driven and others rendering quite the wallop - but also beckoning for the lightened (in positive sense) refrain making a declaration of faith: God, I will follow You because You died for me. Michael and Oz again imbue their delectable duel leads. Lyric snippet:
Long ago, there was a man who came
Came and died for you
You, you say you don't want to know
But I've got to tell you the truth
God, I will follow you because you died for me
Gave to me your life to set me free
Anyone who asks shall receive
Jesus in your heart
It's time for you to start
Giving God all the glory
Credit Stryper for the impact it had on the scene back in the day. Yes, millions of albums sold, but also how many lives touched and influenced. The group’s legacy, however, remains to this day found in how it has created some of the finest music of its career. How does To Hell With The Devil add up? In my opinion, it is best of the foundational four released during the eighties, albeit I rank it beneath 1990’s Against The Law in terms of consistency and continuity. It also does not reach similar artistic heights (again, my opinion) of comeback albums No More Hell To Pay (2013), Fallen (2015), Even The Devil Believes (2020) and The Final Battle (2022). In order to do so it would require more depth found in a few additional heavy hitters alongside a hard rock ballad. Still, a worthy addition to any eighties melodic metal and hard rock collection.
Review by Andrew Rockwell
Track Listing: "Abyss (To Hell With The Devil)" (1:20), "To Hell With The Devil" (4:07), "Calling On You" (3:59), "Free" (3:41), "Honestly" (4:08), "The Way" (3:35), "Sing-Along Song" (4:18), "Holding On" (4:15), "Rockin’ The World" (3:27), "All Of Me" (3:10), "More Than A Man" (4:35)
Musicians
Michael Sweet - Lead Vocals & Guitars
Oz Fox - Guitars
Robert Sweet - Drums
Guest Musicians
Brad Cobb - Bass
John Van Tongren - Keyboards
