STRYPER: Australian Tour Pushed Back To August

STRYPER's previously announced 25th anniversary tour of Australia scheduled for early April has been moved to August.

The new dates for the tour are as follows:

Aug. 25 - Melbourne, Australia - Billboard the Venue
Aug. 26 - Sydney, Australia - The Metro Theatre
Aug. 28 - Brisbane, Australia - The Hi Fi Brisbane

All current tickets purchased by patrons for the original dates are valid and viable for entry to the new dates for the relevant show in that city. In the instance that anyone wishes to get a refund of your current ticket, please take it back to your point of purchase.

For more information, visit www.justsayrock.com.au.

STRYPER recently added KISS' "Shout It Out Loud" to the list of songs its is recording for its upcoming album of covers, to be released later in the year.

The CD will include STRYPER's renditions of the following classics:

* JUDAS PRIEST - "Breaking The Law"
* IRON MAIDEN - "The Trooper"
* SCORPIONS - "Blackout"
* OZZY OSBOURNE - "Over The Mountain"
* SWEET - "Set Me Free"
* VAN HALEN - "On Fire"
* DEEP PURPLE - "Highway Star"
* BLACK SABBATH - "Heaven And Hell"
* UFO - "Lights Out"
* KANSAS - "Carry On Wayward Son"
* KISS - "Shout It Out Loud"

STRYPER guitarist/vocalist Michael Sweet recently explaiend the band's decision to pay tribute to its influences on the new album:

"We grew up listening to many different styles of music and there is a list of bands that influenced us throughout our musical education. Bands like JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, SCORPIONS, VAN HALEN, UFO, DEEP PURPLE, LED ZEPPELIN, QUEEN, KANSAS and many others, helped to shape our sound and make us who we are today, musically speaking.

"We grew up on the streets of L.A. playing every club in town from Gazzari's to The Whisky to The Troubadour to you name it. We played covers from all the bands mentioned above and we shaped our own sound from listening and performing songs from these classic bands.

"We wanted to step outside the box and record a record that shows you, the fans, where we come from — our historical, musical roots so to speak. It's a side to STRYPER that no one has really seen or heard before, or at least quite like this.

"We performed 'On Fire' by VAN HALEN on a few tours and we also performed 'Breaking The Law' by PRIEST on this last tour. The response was far beyond our expectations each time we performed these songs. People seemed genuinely surprised to hear STRYPER cover these songs and even more surprised to hear STRYPER perform these songs relatively well.

"This will be an opportunity for Robert [Sweet, drums], Oz [Fox, guitar], Tim [Gaines, bass] and myself to loosen up and have some fun.

"For those of you who may think that we're walking away from our faith — you're wrong. We've never been more serious about our faith at any point in our lives. It is, however, important to enjoy what you do and lighten up from time to time. That's what we plan to do.

"This will be a fun record to make and we hope that this comes through, as well as the chance to showcase the abilities that we've been blessed with."