Stryper
Stryper is an American Christian metal band. The group's lineup consists of Michael Sweet (lead vocals, guitar), Oz Fox (guitar, backing vocals), Perry Richardson (bass, backing vocals), and Robert Sweet (drums).
Prior to forming Stryper, the Sweet brothers performed together in several bands. Robert Sweet began playing drums in his early teens, and the brothers started performing together when Robert was around seventeen and Michael around fourteen. The brothers performed under the names Firestorm and Aftermath before briefly joining forces with a local guitarist whose band was called Roxx; Robert Sweet appended "Regime" to the name after discovering another act had already used it. The band performed as Roxx Regime on the Sunset Strip circuit, playing venues including the Whisky a Go Go, the Troubadour, and Gazzarri's, before signing with Enigma Records and renaming themselves Stryper.
Formed in 1983 as Roxx Regime, the band soon changed their musical message to reflect their Christian beliefs, and the band's name was also changed to Stryper. They went on to become the first overtly Christian heavy metal band to gain acceptance in the mainstream. In 1983, they signed with Enigma Records and released their debut album The Yellow and Black Attack. In the mid-1980s, Stryper enjoyed their most successful period beginning with the release of To Hell with the Devil, which achieved platinum sales status. Stryper went on to release two more gold albums before disbanding in 1993.
In 2003, Stryper came out of retirement for a reunion tour and subsequently signed a multi-album contract with Big3 Records in 2005. In 2013, they signed a multi-album deal with Frontiers Records and have since released Second Coming, which includes 14 re-recorded songs from their first three albums; No More Hell to Pay in 2013; Fallen in 2015; God Damn Evil in 2018; Even the Devil Believes in 2020; The Final Battle in 2022; and When We Were Kings in 2024.
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