Stryper "God Damn Evil" pre-order now

Follower of Jesus wrote:I kinda feel like this one is being overrated a bit. I found much of the album to be boring. People, including my son, are talking about "The Valley"...I think this song is meh. There are some good songs on here, sure, but to me it is definitely a step down from the last two albums, owing almost entirely to songwriting. The performances and production are solid. I just think the songwriting is suffering at this point. The songs are written and recorded too hastily without enough work and rework to hone them. Just my opinion. I like a few songs, but I'd give this only 2.5 out of 5 stars.

I agree, at least for me compared to NMHTP it has a quite a bit more filler tracks

But I have already listened to this album more times through then Fallen, other than the first few songs on there I never listened to any of the songs more than twice

So at this point I would say it easily passes Fallen for me

Follower of Jesus wrote:I kinda feel like this one is being overrated a bit. I found much of the album to be boring. People, including my son, are talking about "The Valley"...I think this song is meh. There are some good songs on here, sure, but to me it is definitely a step down from the last two albums, owing almost entirely to songwriting. The performances and production are solid. I just think the songwriting is suffering at this point. The songs are written and recorded too hastily without enough work and rework to hone them. Just my opinion. I like a few songs, but I'd give this only 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Agreed.

I still boldly say Take It to the Cross was a good song, and I would even go as far as saying that's the only song in the album that was above average.
The other singles left me pretty cold. The chorus on The Valley reminds me too much of the chorus of Sorry. And neither of them are anything special. I think Lost was the best after Take It to the Cross.

The rest of the album was something I forgot very quickly after listening. While No More Hell to Pay had a killer hook in almost every single song, most of the songs in God Damn Evil had none. Especially the title track was a disappointment. Listening to this album felt quite like listening to Against the Law where most of the songs did nothing to me. At least the last three songs in Against the Law were something I could still put to some Top Stryper songs list, this album had none. When I'm listening to a modern Stryper album I'm expecting to hear at least one song that is as great as Te Amo or Yahweh. Sadly even with all the hype this album had zero songs like that. There are a few tracks I enjoy to listen more than the others, but those others are something I don't really have much interest to listen to again.

The musicianship is great and I love the bass guitar on this album, but sadly the songs are mostly just average. I think 2.5 out of 5 sounds accurate.

This album definitely has a bit of a different vibe to it. If I had to give that vibe a label it would be ... "let's rebuke Tim Gaines."

But to be serious. I'm mostly in agreement with many. Good, not great. Weak link here seems to be the writing. There's nothing I dislike ... but there's nothing I really love, which is unusual for me and a Stryper album.

Despite all that, I will be seeing them live in Malden MA in a couple weeks. I'm sure I'll enjoy. I haven't been to a Stryper show I haven't liked ... and I've seen them about 8 to 10 times.

Just picked it up at the local CD store. After hearing a few times, I think it's a grower. My least favorite songs are Take It to the Cross and the slower songs Can't Get Enough and Beautiful, but I'm hearing them again there are still things to like. Well worth the buy if you guys can find it. I don't think it's as good as NMHTP and Fallen, but still a worthy addition. I already thought NMHTP would be difficult to match once, so no disappointment for me.

I think the t/t has rightfully been the focus of scrutiny. Musically, the song sounds a lot like "To Hell with the Devil", which is certainly no coincidence. I think the connection is clear: if we have no problem saying "to hell with the devil", why don't we ask God to damn the devil and his evil? Of course, it feels weird singing along. It is such a taboo combination of words, and I still avoid it to not get accustomed to it.

It has that distinctly Stryper anthemic, glam metal sound, which works okay, but considering the severity of the subject matter (reading the lyrics, it is clearly about damning the sin in our lives), I think it would have worked better with more stern sounding music like the heavy/doomy Valley. But it's not mine to change! I hope Stryper reaches people with the gospel message, even if the means of attracting attention are a bit questionable. The great thing is God uses flawed humans.

Friday13th wrote:Just picked it up at the local CD store. After hearing a few times, I think it's a grower. My least favorite songs are Take It to the Cross and the slower songs Can't Get Enough and Beautiful, but I'm hearing them again there are still things to like. Well worth the buy if you guys can find it. I don't think it's as good as NMHTP and Fallen, but still a worthy addition. I already thought NMHTP would be difficult to match once, so no disappointment for me.

Exactly where I am at, those 3 tracks are weakest for me, and NMHTP is gonna be impossible to top IMO but still a really solid album

Here's my top3 of the album:

1. Beautiful
2. Take It to the Cross
3. Lost

Those are the songs I enjoy listening over and over again.

The Devil Doesn't Live Here is promising and quite interesting as being "the fast track" of the album, but it doesn't quite go where I would like it to go.

You Don't Even Know Me sounds really interesting at first as it has this melancholic feel to it, but for some reason it loses its steam in choruses.

I kinda like the opening of Can't Live Without Your Love, but again it loses its grab during the chorus. I'm way more into songs written in minor chords than in major chords. That was something Michael Sweet said about No More Hell to Pay, that he had lots of minor chords and scales on purpose to have more edge to the songs. And that's probably why I love that album.

The sole reason I don't like the title track is that it sounds way too happy for my taste. It's really tough to write happy sounding rock riffs and melodies that I would like. It is possible - ZZ Top's Afterburner is one example of that.
This song gets immediately better during the solo where the riffs change into minor instead of major.


Anyway, Beautiful is really good after several listens. It's clearly the highlight of the album even though I don't think I would be able to call it a new Stryper classic - which, for example, Yahweh from Fallen is.

See, I think that’s part of my problem. NMHTP and Fallen both knocked me down the first time I heard them and I still enjoy them a lot today. I’ve listened through this one 3 times now and it just does nothing but sit there. Give me NMHTP, Water Into Wine, Sympathy, Yahweh, The Calling, or King of Kings over anything on GDE.

Really enjoying this more! Been listening to Own Up the last few days. I love it when a track that hid away at first starts clicking! Sea of Thieves has gotten better as well. Beautiful is a solid track with a fantastic chorus with valuable meaning. The ballad, Can't Live Without Your Love is my favorite from the last three albums.  The back end of the album seemed weaker at first except "The Devil Doesn't Live Here" but now I've been enjoying it as much or more than the first half. Basically everything is cool now but two last sticking points.

My biggest issue remaining is the flow of the album. I can't figure out how to start it and listen beginning to end. That problem is caused by issue two, which is I still don't like Take It To The Cross and the near minute and a half of silence is a terrible way to begin. I've had a hard time getting into the track because the wait time doesn't meet a worthwhile payoff in the end. So, I keep starting the album with a skipped track and it's left everything feel off. Sorry isn't a great opener and it's not meant to be. So, I keep starting the album at different points to find a way to start the album. Tonight I put TITTC into a sound editor and cut the first minute off and faded in the 10-15 seconds before the song drops. I'm going to see how that helps.

Beyond all this I'm going to say, for musicality, this is by far the best Stryper album. The solos, the drumming, the amazing bass work are the best I've heard on any Stryper album thus far. That could be in part the production but I know the solos stand on their own. They're amazing! I've been really surprised by that.

Professor_Valconian wrote:But to be serious. I'm mostly in agreement with many. Good, not great. Weak link here seems to be the writing. There's nothing I dislike ... but there's nothing I really love, which is unusual for me and a Stryper album.

This is exactly how I feel about this one. Only one song for me is memorable, "Sorry".

I'm really surprised by all the favourable reviews online. At this time after a few listens I would actually list this as least fav in my Stryper studio albums list.

Thinking about going to see them this Sunday, haven't since 01.