In the beginning, Stryper, originally known as Roxx Regime, was formed in Orange County, California by brothers Michael and Robert Sweet and guitarist Oz Fox. Stryper stands for “Salvation Through Redemption Yielding Peace, Encouragement and Righteousness”. The Isaiah 53:5 under their logo is the bible verse that states, “by His stripes we are healed”. The band earned their stripes on the Los Angeles metal club circuit and in 1984, after recruiting bass player Tim Gaines, signed with Enigma Records and released their debut mini-album, The Yellow And Black Attack. Their first full-length release, Soldiers Under Command, sold over half a million units worldwide in the eighties, and stayed on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart for over forty weeks. In addition to the hard-rocking tunes that Stryper’s core audience has come to expect, the ballad “Honestly” from their platinum selling 1986 release To Hell With The Devil hit the Top-40 charts. The video for “Honestly” rapidly became the number one most-requested video on MTV. 1988 saw the near-platinum release of In God We Trust, as well as renewed success on MTV, which was bombarded by thousands of phone requests for “Always There For You.” On March 25th of 2003, Hollywood Records released Seven, The Best Of Stryper that included 2 new songs (“Something” and “For You”). That fall, they embarked on a 35 city tour that both fans and critics agreed was one of the hottest tours of 2003. It was announced on March 30, 2005 that Stryper had signed a multi-album deal with Big3 Records. At the same time, Tracy Ferrie was named as their newest member. The band gave birth to their 9th release, Reborn, on August 16, 2005. Exactly 25 years after their ground breaking release of the Y&BA, Murder By Pride (MBP) was released on July 21, 2009.
