OK, covers albums are well passed their sell by date. So with a morbid curiosity into what made Christian metallers Stryper interested in metal in the first place, it was time to check out these 13 tunes. They name check many of the late 70s/early 80s hard rock/proto-metallers I also grew up with (UFO and Priest), as well as Zeppelin, Montrose and ironically, the band Sweet, albeit with a predilection for hit singles over more obscure tracks. Guess they wanted to sell a couple copies of “The Covering” along the way.

Ozzy (‘Over The Mountain’), Kiss (‘Shout It Out Loud’) and Black Sabbath (‘Heaven & Hell’) would seem diametrically opposed to a fundamentalist upbringing. On Kansas’ ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’ Michael Sweet sounds suspiciously like another 70s voice, original Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung. Overall, the sound is a little thin, most songs feel like this is a rehearsal room jam; drums and vocals drowning out guitars. One exception is Deep Purple’s ‘Highway Star’, where the organ comes through loud and clear. ‘Blackout’ (Scorpions) has been slowed down a bit and ‘The Trooper’ just should not have been attempted, vocally. Completists only.