Legendary, long-running heavy metallers Stryper return with a brand-new studio album, “The Final Battle”! Firmly continuing the trend established over their last few albums, “The Final Battle” sees the band growing heavier while also maintaining their trademark melodies, virtuoso guitar playing, and airtight rhythms.
“The Final Battle” was crafted during the most challenging time of the band's career. While they suffered the same setbacks faced by all artists during the course of the global pandemic, the band also had to contend with Oz Fox's ongoing battle with brain tumours and for Michael Sweet, a detached retina which required multiple medical procedures, the use of an eye patch, and limited mobility for stretches of time. But rather than let the adversity get them down, the band accepted these challenges and channelled it into writing some of the greatest songs of their storied career.
Defying all logic, “The Final Battle” somehow manages to best it's immediate predecessors, “No More Hell To Pay” (2013), “Fallen” (2015), “God Damn Evil” (2018), and “Even The Devil Believes” (2020), continuing the band's unprecedented late career streak of releasing arguably the best albums of their multi-decade career. How do they do it? Well, we may never know the answer, but we can be thankful that the gift of musical inspiration continues to find them as they consistently share their musical fountain of youth with heavy metal lovers around the globe.