No More Hell to Pay

Stryper's 2013 release of "No More Hell to Pay" doesn't really have anything glaringly wrong with it, but at the same time, nor does it have much good going for it. Within the glam metal scene, the album comes across as conventional, predictable, and hopefully nothing disappointing to those fans who really expected a glorious return of the yellow and black to the limelight. But these veterans of their craft, however, have only created a mediocre release which fails to live up to the expectations of what would otherwise be precedent among such experienced musicians.

What Stryper has going for itself in this album, on the brighter side of things, is the consistency of the album and the natural flow that all of the songs have with one another. If the quality of the album were to be drawn out on a graph, there would be very few peaks and troughs that draw attention to the inferiority of a particular song in relation to the rest of the album, or the inferiority of the entire album in relation to a certain song. In a way, the layout of the tracks and their musical correlation with one another can be explained in a more cynical perspective as a tactical disguise for the fact that the band really did not have a whole lot of ideas going for them on this album. For example, the tone and style of the lead guitars "Saved By Love" and "Te Amo" follow the same basic patterns at different tempos, giving both songs a hint of an overarching theme connecting the two across the album. This is the same case with "Legacy" and "Water into Wine". as well as some others. The only exception to this rule is the first track "Revelation", which incorporates a solid lead guitar intro conceptually not found in any other song. This does not go to say that other songs on the album should have had intro solos, but that the instrumentation of that particular song is unique to it, to the point of making it sound out of place, as if it were not even from the same album. This, again, is the exception, and all of the other songs on the album feel like they belong with each other.

On the other hand, this album runs into the problem of being overly consistent with itself to the point of becoming formulaic. To say that every song sounds the same would be a lie, but every song is constructed out of the same basic skeletal system which is then reused and reused to the point of monotony by the end of the last track. This has no exceptions but for the track "Jesus is Just Alright", which does not count since they did not even write it. One could almost say Stryper composed every song like they were making instant mashed potatoes, following a list of steps to fill in the space rather than using their talent and their musicality to devise something fresh and original. Understandably, in the field of glam metal, originality is a bit more difficult to come by, as by definition the genre follows an established set of musical tropes, but honestly, the repetitive, predictable, uninteresting nature of this album is just ridiculous.

Amidst the mind-numbing listening of the album, there are a few highlights that momentarily break the chains of mediocrity, including the beautiful harmonic chorus of the title track, "No More Hell to Pay" and the opening riffs of "Marching into Battle", as well as the nostalgic chorus of "Water into Wine", but if this album occurs to me as one I have heard in recency, I will find myself scant able to stomach the monotony and prefer to skip to the few memorable tracks, a musical heresy for which I cannot often forgive myself... with the exception of this album.

"No More Hell to Pay" is the album for glam metal connoisseurs who only prefer their music as a hazy droning in the background.

''No More Hell to Pay'' is a standard Stryper record. It features twelve mid-tempo tracks around four minutes on the thin line between hard rock and heavy metal with enthusiastic high-pitched vocals and occasionally inspired guitar solos while the rest can be described as vintage heavy metal music. As usually the lyrics are all inspired by Christian topics. While this album is generally listenable for any fan of melodic heavy metal from the eighties, almost all songs are so exchangeable and therefor uninspired that there is no real need in purchasing this album. The band actually sometimes sounds like a parody of itself as in the cringeworthy and extremely repetitive The Doobie Brothers cover ''Jesus Is Just Alright'' or the cheesy ballad ''The One'' with its vapid sing-along parts. If you want to listen to some great music from the band, you should either stick to the dynamic follow-up album ''Fallen'' or to the album of re-recorded classics entitled ''Second Coming'' which was released earlier during the same year ''No More Hell to Pay'' saw the light of day.

The only really great song on this release is ''Legacy'' with its slightly more modern sound and crunchier riffs. Even the vocals vary more than usual and are a little bit more aggressive in the verses while the uplifting chorus features the usual high-pitched performance. Some enthusiastic screams in the instrumental parts add some more energy to this enjoyable track that also features one of the longest and most inspired guitar solos on this album that isn't a far call from classic Iron Maiden. There are a couple of other above average tunes such as the harmonious and catchy opener ''Revelation'' that is a little bit more sluggish than the other songs and the energizing and slightly faster album closer ''Renewed''.

Overall, ''No More Hell to Pay'' is a rather disappointing effort aside of the outstanding track ''Legacy''. A vast majority of songs are completely exchangeable and the completely unimpressive title song ''No More Hell to Pay'' should be pointed out as a negative example here. At least, the song represents the spirit and style of this release accurately. The rhythm section is mostly unimpressive. The guitar solos only have a few shining moments. The high-pitched vocals can get really annoying after a while and are often overtly dramatic. The band also doesn't seem to know whether they want to play commercial hard rock or vintage heavy metal which doesn't always make a coherent mixture. I would recommend to download the single great song on this record legally and to stick to the two releases mentioned before instead of purchasing this album.