Stryper

Item: Against the Law
Author: Chris Vicious

Against the Law

(1990)

Reviewed by Chris Vicious

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Label EnigmaThe Asbury Collegian October 11, 1990October 11, 1990

glam metal hard rock heavy metal

This is gonna be a good one... The album, "Against The Law"; the band, Stryper. As you may know Stryper recently released an album under a secular label, and seemingly dropped their testimony.

Now just for reference, I have never liked Stryper, but as your musical correspondent, I am going to take a neutral stance here and open this issue for you to decide on. So let's all be open-minded and please bear with me.

Musically, "Against the Law" is clearly Stryper's best project. The guitars are a little more free to play around and the vocals aren't so "pretty" or harmonious. Michael Sweet (lead singer) sings more rough this time and shuns the past Stryper style. A few songs are actually great in musical content but only in that sense. This album is full of good old clean rock 'n' roll, and a very good one in that aspect.

But lyrically this album is weak. In the past Stryper has put out some clearly ambiguous songs that could go either towards a human relationship or a relationship with God. But this album isn't even ambiguous.

Just to bring forth some curiosity and give a mild clue regarding the attitude of this album, here are some of the song titles: "Two Time Woman", "Lady", "Against The Law", "Caught in the Middle", and "Rock the Hell out of You".

In "Lady", I was surprised as I listened to the words, "I see you standing there/ Oh, so fine/ I can't believe my eyes/ Girl, I just can't seem to make you mine...Lady, I want to be your man..."

And even more surprising, the song "Caught in the Middle", showed very clearly that Stryper was changing, "You've been working hard/ Trying to make your life appealing/ You've got no regard/ You don't know what the hell you're feeling..."

But then "Against the Law" brought out that subtle hint that they still are trying: "We've still got the fire burning in our soul/ But we're just rock'n harder to make our music roll... "

Even in one song they do say there is a choice to be made but they never go on to tell what choice it could be.

For a secular album, "Against the Law" does contain a morally upright message but without any hints alluding to the reason for the morals.

Stryper had an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in which I quote, "they have openly begun to drink and smoke...". That article brought forth another one in the Sept. issue of CCM where Stryper "defended" themselves by saying, "We don't endorse drinking, but if you have a drink, as long as you're wise with it it's not a big deal."

Robert Sweet (drummer), also went on to comment about the album, "You won't pick up this record and hear anything that says 'God' or 'Christ'. That was intentionally done. We were tired of people coming back with excuses saying 'Sorry we can't play this'. MTV's got to play this and the radio's got to play it or it doesn't serve the purpose".

As a result of Stryper's new release, the Benson record company has dropped all Stryper albums and will no longer be distributing even the older ones. I respect that decision and it is seen as a bold move on their part.

With all this in mind and the new attitude of the band there are some questions left to be answered. Remember, "Do not judge", but also remember, "You will know them by their fruits".

As a Christian example to such an impressionable audience, is Stryper being responsible? Are they being a solid Christian witness to the secular world? If so, where is their message; it's certainly not in the album. What is the purpose of getting on MTV if you don't have any message in the songs? Drinking may not be wrong if you don't get drunk, but what kind of witness is that? How would it look if Mother Teresa was sipping a wine cooler? Or how about Billy Graham and a Bud Light?

Overall in closing, is the Christian media being too hard on them? There really isn't anything wrong with the word "secular" so why is there such a fuss?