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To Hell With Retirement: Stryper Still Rocks
- Jul 21
- 4 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Stryper | Photo Credit: Manuel Moggio, Hainecch
Stryper surfaced in 1983 looking and sounding much like other glam metal bands of the era, but with one glaring difference. While many of their peers sang about sex, drugs, and the occult, Stryper sang openly about Christianity, faith, and salvation. Their name references Isaiah 53:5, and the band quickly became known for tossing Bibles into concert crowds – a tradition they still carry on today. The approach could have easily limited the band’s appeal to a purely Christian audience, but the band found genuine mainstream success, landing them on MTV and the Billboard Hot 100, making them one of the few Christian metal acts ever to break out of the religious music world. But the band’s unusual place in metal history had no unfavorable effect on the fans in San Antonio on July 19th.
A single spotlight cut through the darkness at the Aztec Theatre as Michael Sweet, dressed in black and wearing sunglasses, stepped onto the stage alone. The Stryper co-founder, guitarist, and lead vocalist struck a rockstar pose and played the first chords of the night. He was greeted with cheers, raised fists, and plenty of devil horns – ironic but apparently unavoidable at a metal concert. His bandmates soon followed behind: his brother and fellow co-founder Robert Sweet on drums, longtime guitarist Oz Fox, and bassist Perry Richardson, who joined in 2017. A total of nine speaker cabinets were positioned behind them, demonstrating that subtlety was not on the evening’s agenda.
The choice to open with “Sing-Along Song” was a wise one: the audience immediately accepted the invitation. Stryper’s signature yellow stripes adorned every member’s instrument as they used them to tear through the 1986 track. “It’s your turn now!,” Michael yelled. Every instrument except Robert’s drums fell silent and the crowd took over with no hesitation. He tossed a guitar pick into the crowd and stepped back, leaving the crowd to carry the song. Eventually, he dropped to one knee and finished with a piercing shriek that would be ambitious even for a singer half his age. Michael displayed all the instincts of an experienced frontman. Near the back of the stage, Robert seemed completely immersed behind his kit, which was positioned sideways instead of facing forward. The setup allowed the audience to have a clearer view of his playing. Meanwhile, Michael was already running low on guitar picks not long into the second song. Throughout the night, he easily threw more than a dozen picks and at one point helped himself to some of Perry’s just so he could keep going. Perry didn’t seem to mind; in fact, he spent most of the concert grinning.
When the band finally paused to take a breather, a familiar question was raised: Who had seen Stryper before, and who was seeing them for the first time? The crowd was mostly split. Michael jokingly wondered why anyone had waited 42 years to see them. He noticed a particularly young fan and admitted that not being born yet was a “good excuse.”
The set covered a sizeable portion of Stryper’s career. “Loud ‘N’ Clear” reached all the way back to the band’s 1984 debut EP, while five songs came from the platinum-selling To Hell With the Devil, which until 2001 was the best-selling Christian metal album. Newer songs such as “Divider,” “Sorry,” and “When We Were Kings” prevented the show from becoming an ‘80s time capsule. The crowd knew plenty of lyrics from early and recent eras, though it was so electric that Stryper could have probably slipped in a nursery rhyme into the set without losing anyone. Michael joked that he had even more hair in the ‘80s and said the decade was generally “more fun” than 2026. He did however draw the line at missing shoulder pads.
Stryper could easily coast on its history at this point, but the band isn’t interested in that. With all four members well into their 60s, they still play with the intensity of musicians with something left to prove. Oz Fox’s playing is especially impressive considering the health challenges he’s endured, including an onstage seizure in 2018 and brain surgery to treat a tumor in 2021. Nothing in his performance suggested he was holding back. The chemistry among the four felt relaxed, and the band members appeared to be having nearly as much fun as the audience. In fact, Michael himself admitted as much while introducing “Always There for You,” telling the crowd he was “having too much fun.”
Later in the evening, he discussed Stryper’s musical roots, giving shout-outs to Scorpions, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Van Halen. He mentioned how people sometimes assumed Stryper members exclusively listened to Christian music and that some even told them they shouldn’t listen to those bands. Michael’s response was simple: without those bands, Stryper wouldn’t exist. That bit of history provided the perfect setup for a cover of Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law.”
The cover kicked off the final run until Stryper closed with one of their signature songs, “To Hell with the Devil.” The energy never waned. One last tradition was yet to take place. The final notes rang and Robert stepped away from his drums carrying a stack of Bibles and began tossing them one at a time into the crowd. One concertgoer could be heard shouting, “I need a Bible!” After 42 years, Stryper is still loud and committed. One final “God bless you” brought the night to a close.
