MICHAEL SWEET On Next STRYPER Album: 'It's Very Controversial And Shocking'

STRYPER will enter the studio in early November to begin recording its new album for a tentative April 2018 release via Frontiers Music Srl. Frontman Michael Sweet told XS Rock in a new interview about the band's planned follow-up to 2015's "Fallen": "Oz [Fox, guitar] and Rob [Sweet, drums] are coming out on Monday and they'll be here for about eleven or twelve days and then we'll go into the studio on the 5th of November. The holidays will slow us a bit, but the plans are to turn the album in by mid-January, so you're going to be looking at an April release, probably. It'll be through Frontiers Records again. We've got a title track already and an album title. It's very controversial and shocking and when people hear it, their heads are going to spin right off of their shoulders."

Sweet also talked about a possible replacement for bassist Tim Gaines, who was recently dismissed from STRYPER due to his allegedly "erratic and hostile behavior." "We do have a guy in mind [for the bassist position] that we're flying out next Monday," Michael said. "We've already talked with him and we're very familiar with him. We're going to jam with him and see how it feels in person. He's a great bass player. He's got a great look, he's a great singer. He's well known and comes from a very successful band and everyone will know who he is. I just can't announce it at this time. The most important thing about him is he's a great guy. And we really need someone who's going to be a team player and just be inspirational and go out there with a smile on their face."

Michael recently revealed that STRYPER was working on a "career-spanning" documentary which will focus primarily "on the good that STRYPER has done. All the people we have influenced and the lives that have been changed — people who were once drug addicts [and] alcoholics who are now pastors or they really moved on to do great things," he told music writer Joel Gausten. "People in other bands who you might not ever imagine are STRYPER fans. It's going to be really cool, man. We've got it all laid out, and we're going to start work on that really soon. It's going to take us a couple of years to complete, but it's going to be a big deal. It's not going to be just some typical documentary like most. It's going to be really unusual and interesting in a really cool way. I think when people see it, they're going to be completely mind-blown."

STRYPER in 2016 completed a tour celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of its multi-platinum album "To Hell With The Devil".

"Fallen" entered The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 43 with first-week sales of just over 10,000 units — nearly all from pure album sales. The set followed the No. 35-peaking "No More Hell To Pay", which was released in 2013.