After nearly 40 years of discussion, Stryper has confirmed that they are releasing their first full-length Christmas album. The band began recording the 10-track album back in late April, which will include a combination of five original songs and five traditional holiday classics. Among the traditional selections are “Reason for the Season” and “Winter Wonderland”, both of which first appeared on a 1985 single and were later included in the 1986 reissue of Stryper’s debut EP, The Yellow and Black Attack.
Stryper has recently given fans a taste of what’s to come with the release of “Still the Light”, the first single from the upcoming album. Arriving just in time for “Christmas in July,” the track is accompanied by a lyric video.
Frontman Michael Sweet expressed his excitement about the project: “Stryper fans worldwide have wanted a Christmas record for 40+ years. Now we can say that we have finally made this a reality. With the first single, “Still the Light” — let’s celebrate Christmas in July and acknowledge that Jesus will always be “The Reason For The Season”!!”
In a recent interview with Jorge Pozo of LotsOfMuzik, Sweet shared more about the upcoming release: “It is awesome. Oh my gosh. We’re so excited about this one.”
When asked which songs would appear on the record, Sweet explained, “We’ve got five traditional Christmas songs on it. We did a remake of “Winter Wonderland” and then we did a version of “Silent Night”, a version of “The Little Drummer Boy”, “Go Tell It on the Mountain”, which is not one that’s been covered a lot, which is cool, and it is considered a Christmas hymn. And then also “Joy to the World”.”
He continued: “So we’ve got those five songs, and then we did a remake of “Reason for the Season”, made it sound more today. It’s still the same arrangement, but obviously with new tones. It sounds bigger and thicker and heavier. And then we did four new original Christmas songs: “Greatest Gift of All”, “On This Holy Night”, “Still the Light”, and — what’s the other one? I’m trying to think. It’s slipping my mind right now. It’ll come to me. Anyway, we’re really, really, really pleased with how this one turned out, man. It’s really cool. It’s gonna be a great album.”
Asked which songs he feels most connected to, Sweet pointed to the new material: “Probably the new stuff. I love the traditional stuff and it was awesome and fun doing that, but I always feel a little more connected with new material ’cause it’s a little more exciting and hasn’t been done before. So it’s new territory.”
Sweet also elaborated on what gives the record its distinct sound: “Well, I mean it definitely has a very unique signature. We didn’t really plan it this way, but it has this really great merge of classic — it’s got that undeniable classic sound to it, Stryper classic sound, but yet at the same time it’s got that undeniable modern-era Stryper sound too, because we’re tuned down to D now. So the guitars are a little thicker and things sound a little bigger and heavier. So it’s got the perfect merge in combination of classic and modern.”
He also pointed out one new feature: “Something else we did — for example, we did every single solo in harmony. So every solo, every note is in harmony, which is a first. We’ve never done that on any album. But the minute you hear those harmony guitar solos, that’s a very Stryper signature sound. So you get lots of that on this album. It’s really cool, man. It’s exciting, and I can’t wait for people to hear it.”
Of the new originals, Sweet called attention to “On This Holy Night”, describing it as “very heavy musically — dark. It sounds almost like Black Sabbath. And it’s got this cool vibe to it and such a great message about how we worldwide really more often make Christmas about everything but Jesus. So that’s the message, and it’s a cool message.”
Another track, “The Greatest Gift of All”, brings a different energy: “It’s almost kind of a little Green Day-slash-Blink-182 sounding, and it’s just this power-pop metal, slightly punk vibe to it. It’s really cool. So it’s got some new flavors to it that I think people are gonna like and appreciate.”
When asked if it was difficult to blend the Stryper sound with more traditional holiday tunes, Sweet said that wasn’t an issue: “No. Not at all. It just all came together so naturally. As you know, we did remakes, re-recordings of “Winter Wonderland” and “Reason for the Season”. So we tried to stay true to the original form. The only difference is they’ll both be tuned down a half a step, and “Winter Wonderland”, we didn’t do the joking around in the beginning. Because we felt like that was something that you shouldn’t touch. That was with Tim Gaines, original Stryper bassist, and that was a spontaneous, fun thing. And we didn’t wanna go down that road and try to mimic that; that could have been real corny. But other than that, it’s the same arrangements. And the other traditional songs sound killer. “The Little Drummer Boy” is powerful. It’s a really good album, and we’re excited. We’ve been talking about a Christmas album since 1985, believe it or not.”
As for when fans can expect the album to drop, Sweet confirmed: “Definitely this year… The album itself may come out in October, certainly by November… Frontiers Music Srl will be releasing it worldwide. It will be available for all. And it’s gonna be awesome, man. It’s such a cool thing.”
He added: “Like I said, [it’s] very exciting for us, ’cause we’ve been seriously talking about this for a long time. The reason why it hasn’t happened is because of our schedules. It’s just there hasn’t been a good time to do it. So this time I brought it up to the label in a Zoom meeting. They agreed it would be a good idea, and we just made it happen. We’re, like, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go do it right now.’ And we got in the studio quickly, and we’re gonna release it this year. And from now on, it’s not talk — it’s actually going to be reality.”
