JULY 21, 2010 - Stryper’s latest album "The Covering" has been creating quite the buzz since the release of some samples from the album were announced recently via Michael Sweet’s Twitter page.

In the coming days Stryper will be revealing even more samples from the album. Follow Michael Sweet on Twitter at www.twitter.com/michaelhsweet to be the first to hear the second round of samples from "The Covering"!

JUNE 24, 2010 - Recently SongVest offered a very unique opportunity to fans by auctioning part of the song “God” to be released on the upcoming album “The Covering”.

Winning fans received a variety of special prizes in addition to becoming part owner of the song.  Two fans were able to sit in the studio with Michael Sweet and attend the mastering session for the song.

Dave Williams, one of these winners, wrote a very moving note following his experience.  Stryper asks that you pray for Linda Williams and her family during these challenging times.

CLICK HERE TO READ DAVE'S NOTE

FEBRUARY 18, 2010 - Hi everyone.  Michael Sweet here.  As you may know, Stryper’s about to start recording a new album of cover songs from bands that influenced us musically growing up.

I’ve decided to periodically release the specific songs we will be recording via my twitter account.  Please take a moment to join me on twitter and be the first to know the songs we will be covering for this upcoming album.  This will be the only place we’ll be releasing this information.

FEBRUARY 15, 2010 - Hey Everyone, Just as promised, I wanted to outline some more details regarding the new Stryper record. We grew up listening to many different styles of music and there is a list of bands that influenced us throughout our musical education. Bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Van Halen, UFO, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Kansas and many others, helped to shape our sound and make us who we are today, musically speaking. We grew up on the streets of LA playing every club in town from Gazzari's to The Whisky to The Troubadour to you name it. We played covers from all the bands mentioned above and we shaped our own sound from listening and performing songs from these classic bands.

We wanted to step outside the box and record a record that shows you, the fans, where we come from - our historical, musical roots so to speak. It's a side to Stryper that no one has really seen or heard before, or at least quite like this. We performed "On Fire" by Van Halen on a few tours and we also performed "Breaking The Law" by Priest on this last tour. The response was far beyond our expectations each time we performed these songs. People seemed genuinely surprised to hear Stryper cover these songs and even more surprised to hear Stryper perform these songs relatively well. This will be an opportunity for Robert, Oz, Tim and myself to loosen up and have some fun.

For those of you who may think that we're walking away from our faith - your wrong. We've never been more serious about our faith at any point in our lives. It is however important to enjoy what you do and lighten up from time to time. That's what we plan to do. This will be a fun record to make and we hope that this comes through, as well as the chance to showcase the abilities that we've been blessed with. More details to come and a specific song list and sequence to follow.

We're looking forward to getting back into the studio and more important, to seeing all of you on the road again this year!

Be well, be blessed and let the games begin,
Michael

FEBRUARY 9, 2010 - It was recently learned that Noisecreep (NOISECREEP.COM) has named Michael Sweet as one of the Top 10 high-pitch metal vocalists! Here's what they had to say:

"We could see you yelling at your monitors now, "Stryper?!" But get past whatever preconceived notion you might have about these Christian rockers because Michael Sweet has one of the more ear-splitting howls you'll here anywhere. Check out albums like 'Soldiers Under Command' and 'To Hell With The Devil' if you don't believe us. Ironically, as the band's profile got higher, his pitch got lower.

Sweet still found ways to sneak a high note, here and there, on their later ballads, but we bet Stryper's label wasn't too hot about the idea."

Follow the link below for the complete list:

TOP 10 HIGH-PITCH METAL SINGERS

FEBRUARY 1, 2010 - Looking back on the past five months I've realized that I've been a little more on the reserved side regarding updates and staying in touch. To be completely honest, it's been nice being more on the reclusive side but for some reason, I felt inclined to write today, 2/1, and I seem to have a lot on my heart so here goes........

CLICK HERE TO READ