God rules them all - A review of Stryper's The Covering

Christian heavy metal quartet Stryper decided to honour its origins, muses and inspirations on The Covering that features twelve cover songs plus a brand new original track. It's quite ironic that the only new song is actually the best on this release. Its powerful uplifting vocals, skilled melodic guitar play and epic optimistic atmosphere go back to the band's own roots in the mid-eighties and the song can actually compete with the band's classic material. It's a pity that most people will never hear this excellent song because they aren't going to pick up this average cover album.

The main problem is that most songs sound strikingly familiar to the original versions and fail to add anything new. Stryper would go on to release an excellent record of new interpretations of their own songs on Second Coming only two years later that would give the original tracks some refreshing oomph. This means that the band is capable of updating old song material efficiently. This can't be said about The Covering. ''Carry on Wayward Son'' by Kansas for instance sounds as if every note and rhythm had been copied from the original tune and blindly reproduced by the four gifted musicians without any inspiration.

In a few cases, Stryper changed a few minor elements but these decisions turn out being quite hit and miss. The band slowed down Judas Priest's ferocious ''Breaking the Law'' which misses the point since it's an angry song that should be performed relentlessly. On the other side, Stryper cut some of the extensive solo parts of Iron Maiden's ''The Trooper'' which sounds more focused, direct and consistent than the original song but misses the vibrant bass guitar play of the original tune to really stand out.

My favourite reinterpretation on this output is probably Deep Purple's ''Highway Star'' because the guitar solo in the middle part is executed perfectly and gets me every single time. The band really proves that they are four excellent musicians with this song and manage to outplay one of the world's greatest rock bands ever. This record features other good cover songs such as the vibrant opener in form of The Sweet's ''Set Me Free'' that takes no prisoners or the enthusiastic rendition of Scorpions' ''Blackout'' that is particularly impressive in the vocal department.

In the end, Stryper's The Covering features a handful of solid cover songs and an outstanding new track while the other half is lazy, forgettable and exchangeable. This is the kind of album collectors can purchase for a reduced fee but it's certainly no highlight in Stryper's extensive discography and there are much more inspired cover albums out there.

Final rating: 60%