Stryper – Made Of Metal

CCM: Getting back to what made you successful in the first place clearly means getting heavier for you guys, right?
MS: We’ve always been a heavy band. We grew up on heavy music, but at the same time, we grew up on bands like Journey. So, we have a double-sided coin in that we like both styles. We’d have a heavy song like “To Hell With The Devil” and then you’d have “Honestly.” We’ve always been like that. We weren’t copying other bands that had power ballads in the ’80s. It’s just something we’ve always done. That being said, I think it’s difficult or people to know who we are—we’re a metal band, so our music is heavy. It doesn’t feel like we’re compromising anything as we get heavier. If anything, we’re getting back to who we are.

CCM: Is it getting back to that heavier sound that keeps you this excited about the music?
MS: We’re still very passionate about what we do and why we do it and the gifts that God has given us. We’re thankful that we’re still healthy and alive and breathing. With that comes this passion to want to play and create and record and we’re so excited about it. Some bands we meet will say how burned they are or how tired they are, but you won’t find that with us. We’re ready to go twenty more years. We’re still just as excited about it as we were in ’84 or ’88 as we are right now.

CCM: Lyrically, you really seem to be as direct as you come against darkness and evil.
MS: There’s a lot of hate in this world, especially online. I think that’s where most of it stems from. Anyone can go online at any given time and say whatever they want and there’s never anyone to answer to. It’s sad because we see suicide from it. We see fights and arguments. We see separation and division. From tweets, we see borderline outbreak of war. It’s crazy…it’s insane! So the album is kind-of focused on that. There’s a song called “You Don’t Even Know Me” that touches on that. There’s another song called “Lost” that does, too.

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