Stryper started a new trend with a song on their 2005 Reborn album. It was entitled IGWT and was a cover of their original song, In God We Trust (off the album of the same name). It was refreshing to hear them update the song in a new way.
To keep the tradition alive, Stryper goes back to their first EP, The Yellow and Black Attack to remake a song entitled My Love (I’ll Always Show). To be honest, I really never cared for the original version. The vocals are a little twangy and well, I just don’t like it all that much.
Listen for yourself below:
For Murder By Pride, Stryper turns the amp up to 11 and makes this song a totally heavy metal affair! I love the new version so much! The guitars are heavy and the vocals are tight. Michael Sweet and Oz Fox can harmonize like nobody’s business! As with every other song on this album, it is completely awesome!
Don’t believe me? Put your ears close to the speakers and listen below:
You know I really love You
Your love is beautiful, it’s lasting and true
You’re always on my mind and I want You to be
My love and Savior, the only one I need
I’ve searched for true love for a long, long time
Now my search has ended, just ’cause You are mine
(Chorus)
I’ll always love You and I’ll always tell You so
As long as I’m with You, My Love I’ll Always Show Woa-ooh yeah
(Verse 2)
Whenever I’m sad and feeling I’m through
I begin to feel happy as I sit and think of You
I think of Your face and Your personality
You are so beautiful, You’re everything to me
I’ve searched for true love for a long, long time
Now my search has ended, just ’cause You are mine
Stryper’s new album, Murder By Pride, has hit the torrent websites for download. I’ve been buying a new song from the album every week, so I don’t feel guilty for downloading the four songs I haven’t heard. I will be purchasing them the minute they are available.
This album is phenomenal. Even is you are not a Stryper fan but love hard rock in the vein of Boston and Journey, you will love this album. I thought it might be fun to break the album down a song or two at a time and share my thoughts about them.
The first song up is entitled Mercy Over Blame. Click the play button below to listen.
Love saves the soul
Hate kills the heart
Fear robs the goal
Hope gives a start
Forgiveness is a gift
Bitterness a chain
The ugliness we sift
His beauty still remains
When we all reach Heaven
There will be no shame
‘Cause when we stand before Him
It’s Mercy Over Blame
Faith heals the scars
That pride has brought upon
Grace will be ours
When all we have is gone
When we all reach Heaven
There will be no shame
‘Cause when we stand before Him
He will know each name
He will know each name
Some of us believe Him
?
When we all reach Heaven
It’s Mercy Over Blame
When we all reach Heaven
There will be no shame
‘Cause when we stand before Him
He will know each name
When we all reach Heaven
There will be no shame
‘Cause when we stand before Him
He will know each name
He will know each name
Mercy Over Blame
I’m glad to see Stryper getting back to their roots, both musically and lyrically.
Musically, this song takes me back to the days of To Hell With The Devil and In God We Trust. The moment they harmonize on the chorus, singing “mercy over blame” is just awesome!! The bass is aggressive and very well mixed into the song. Michael Sweet hits his famous high notes and Oz Fox shreds on the guitar. Classic Stryper! Everything about this song is beautiful!
Stryper was the first Christian metal band to make it big. They have always been up front about their faith in their lyrics. This song, Mercy Over Blame, is no different. They sing of God’s grace and that He can wipe away all of our shame. We’ll stand before Him and He’ll know our name. It was easy to grasp lyrics like this that helped me to become a Christ Follower at the tender age of 16.
Tesla released their 8th full studio release this week, entitled Forever More. If you’ve never heard of Tesla, you honestly have been missing out on life! Tesla is one of those bands that really gets it; they love the music that they play and from what I hear about people who know them, they are still down to earth guys. (They are from Sacramento, CA which is 2 hours from where I live, so yeah, with that whole 6 degrees of separation thing, I know people that know ‘em!)
Forever More is a great album. The songs are all solid and the album is very well produced. Unfortunately, the entire album didn’t automatically grab me the way their earlier releases did. After a few more listens, I’m sure I’ll love it as much as I love Tesla’s back catalog.
Below is Tesla’s latest video for the song I Wanna Live.
Tesla has been I’ve loved ever since their very first album, Mechanical Resonance (released in 1986). They have been producing great music ever since then. I’ve never been able to catch a concert, so I was super excited when I heard this DVD was going to be released.
As you can see, all of Tesla’s hits are played here. Track number 8, Dear Private Ledbetter is an amazing new song.
This entire DVD is amazing. The sound quality is great, the performance is great, everything about it is great. If you are a fan of hard rock in general, you gotta see this!
Gotta chalk up another album to the “Lost But Found” category. A friend of mine let me go through his CD collection and I picked up this gem of an album. David Coverdale of Whitesnake fame teams together with Jimmy Page of Led Zepplin fame and together they make awesome music! The album is simply titled “Coverdale-Page“.
Released in 1993, this entire album is an instant classic hard rock offering. There are no filler or throw-away songs at all. If you love the bluesy rock of Whitesnake with a tinge of Zepplin added in, you will absolutely love this disc.
Yesterday I introduced my idea for a fun music experiment comparing the music of Van Halen with David Lee Roth versus the music of Van Halen with Sammy Hagar. The first part of my results are in and I’d like to share ‘em with you.
I had six albums featuring David Lee Roth on lead vocals. Of those six albums, 60 songs were included. I listened to each song and rated them on a scale of 1 star for sucky to 5 stars for totally awesome classic.
Certain songs just rock more than others, that’s a given. I was looking for songs that you could throw on a playlist while you and a buddy went on a long road trip and you could just rock out and have fun to. I was a little surprised to see that DLR was hitting a 60% average! That is awesome!! I can’t think of many other bands that would rate that high.
Not surprisingly, Van Halen’s self titled debut album (1978) scored the most hits. Actually , every song scored either a 4 star or 5 star rating. EVERY SONG. Classics like Jamie’s Cryin’, or Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love, or You Really Got Me are just rock ‘n roll at its best. I would have to say that this is my favorite Van Halen album of all time. The sound is gritty and raw, but the production is superb. You can hear every instrument clearly. The Fun Factor is definitely a +10!
Van Halen II (1979) is Van Halen’s sophomore release and it is a very, very awesome album. Seven out of ten songs got the higher rating. Dance The Night Away, Somebody Get Me A Doctor, and Beautiful Girls are probably my utmost favorite songs from this album. Again, the sound is raw and fun and DLR shines like only he can.
Women and Children first was released in 1980 and it marks a slightly different sound for the band. This album scored the lowest number of classics, with only 3 songs making the mark. But what a doozy those three songs are! And The Cradle Will Rock, Everybody Wants Some, and Could This Be Magic are masterfully crafted songs that showcase the awesomeness that is Van Halen. The sound is big, but just a little more toned down. I love Mac Anthony’s bass playing on this album!
Van Halen comes out swinging on their 4th release Fair Warning (1981). Five out of 10 songs make the 4 star mark. This album is a little darker than Van Halen’s previous “party album”, but the boys still know how to rock. Unchained and So This Is Love are the two standouts that I absolutely love.
Diver Down was released in 1982 and is sometimes referred to as Van Halen’s “cover album”, as five of the twelve songs are all covers. All four songs that had a 4 star rating or higher were all cover tunes. I might have to go on record and say that Where Have All The Good Times Gone? might be my favorite Van Halen song ever. I just love everything about it! Call me crazy, I don’t know. Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now) is a funny song and I love the playfulness of it.
Ah, we finally come to 1984, Van Halen’s sixth studio album (released in 1984 of course!) This was when I was alive and actually could appreciate the album! I can remember many, many hours spent listening to this tape. Almost every song made the cut, but I’ll be honest, I just can’t get into I’ll Wait or Girl Gone Bad. Favorites from this album include Panama, Top Jimmy and Hot For Teacher, but my mostest favorite would have to be House of Pain.
After 1984 was released, David Lee Roth left the band and had a pretty good solo career (I’m Just A Gigolo anyone?) How could he not, with Steve Vai playing guitar for him! Tomorrow I’ll look at the albums of Sammy Hagar and see how they match up.
I love music; more to the point, I love hard rock and heavy metal. Recently I heard a song by one of the kings of hard rock, Van Halen, and I had an idea for a music experiment.
When Van Halen is mentioned in a conversation, the first question out the gate is almost always, “So, you a David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar fan?” This debate has been around since 1986 when Sammy put out his first Van Halen album entitled 5150.
I thought it would be fun to make this arguement personal and perform a nice little musical experiment.
Thankfully technology has come to a place where I can collect every Van Halen album ever recorded and listen to them wherever I go. If this task fell to a lesser man, I’d be worried about the results, but since I own every Van Halen album and have actually listened to and know almost every song, I’m not worried.
Here is the experiment: I pull up every Van Halen album (minus the Live: Right Here Right Now) in iTunes and make three playlists. One is entitled “Van Halen (DLR)” which has every album with David Lee Roth as the front man. These records include: Van Halen, Van Halen II, Women and Children First, Fair Warning, Diver Down, and 1984. Almost 60 songs of utter Van Halen goodness.
The second playlist included all the records with Sammy Hagar as the lead singer. These albums included 5150, 0u812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, and Balance. Again, some awesome classic music! (and no, I don’t count Gary Cherone’s lead on Van Halen III any good!)
The third playlist was every Van Halen song, with both DLR and Sammy, all mixed up.
My experiment was this. To listen to each playlist individually and write about the impact of the songs and see if I could put the question of Lead Singer Supremacy to rest, at least for me. I will use my iPod’s rating system of 5 stars=awesome to 1 star=sucks to rate each song. I will then look at the ratio of the number of songs that earn a 4 or 5 star rating to the rest of the songs and see which singer comes out with the best rating.
I will listen and report back as soon as possible, so in the mean time, just go listen to some Van Halen and relax!
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r started a new trend with a song on their 2005 Reborn album. It was entitled IGWT and was a cover of their original song, In God We Trust (off the album of the same name). It was refreshing to hear them update the song in a new way.
For Murder By Pride, Stryper turns the amp up to 11 and makes this song a totally heavy metal affair! I love the new version so much! The guitars are heavy and the vocals are tight. Michael Sweet and Oz Fox can harmonize like nobody’s business! As with every other song on this album, it is completely awesome!
Not surprisingly, Van Halen’s self titled debut album (1978) scored the most hits. Actually , every song scored either a 4 star or 5 star rating. EVERY SONG. Classics like Jamie’s Cryin’, or Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love, or You Really Got Me are just rock ‘n roll at its best. I would have to say that this is my favorite Van Halen album of all time. The sound is gritty and raw, but the production is superb. You can hear every instrument clearly. The Fun Factor is definitely a +10!
Van Halen II (1979) is Van Halen’s sophomore release and it is a very, very awesome album. Seven out of ten songs got the higher rating. Dance The Night Away, Somebody Get Me A Doctor, and Beautiful Girls are probably my utmost favorite songs from this album. Again, the sound is raw and fun and DLR shines like only he can.
Women and Children first was released in 1980 and it marks a slightly different sound for the band. This album scored the lowest number of classics, with only 3 songs making the mark. But what a doozy those three songs are! And The Cradle Will Rock, Everybody Wants Some, and Could This Be Magic are masterfully crafted songs that showcase the awesomeness that is Van Halen. The sound is big, but just a little more toned down. I love Mac Anthony’s bass playing on this album!
Van Halen comes out swinging on their 4th release Fair Warning (1981). Five out of 10 songs make the 4 star mark. This album is a little darker than Van Halen’s previous “party album”, but the boys still know how to rock. Unchained and So This Is Love are the two standouts that I absolutely love.
Diver Down was released in 1982 and is sometimes referred to as Van Halen’s “cover album”, as five of the twelve songs are all covers. All four songs that had a 4 star rating or higher were all cover tunes. I might have to go on record and say that Where Have All The Good Times Gone? might be my favorite Van Halen song ever. I just love everything about it! Call me crazy, I don’t know. Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now) is a funny song and I love the playfulness of it.
Ah, we finally come to 1984, Van Halen’s sixth studio album (released in 1984 of course!) This was when I was alive and actually could appreciate the album! I can remember many, many hours spent listening to this tape. Almost every song made the cut, but I’ll be honest, I just can’t get into I’ll Wait or Girl Gone Bad. Favorites from this album include Panama, Top Jimmy and Hot For Teacher, but my mostest favorite would have to be House of Pain.
When Van Halen is mentioned in a conversation, the first question out the gate is almost always, “So, you a David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar fan?” This debate has been around since 1986 when Sammy put out his first Van Halen album entitled 5150.
If this task fell to a lesser man, I’d be worried about the results, but since I own every Van Halen album and have actually listened to and know almost every song, I’m not worried.
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