Christian rockers Stryper will enter the studio on April 2 to begin recording their next all-new original album for a late 2013 release. The band's frontman, Michael Sweet, states: "[I] started arranging songs for the next Stryper record today. I've got a phone filled with 50-plus riffs and I'm diving in! Stryper starts recording on April 2 and wrap the record on June 1. It will be released later in the year, 2013! We're busier now than in 1986."

In a 2012 interview with Guitar World, Michael Sweet stated about Stryper's plans for the next studio Cd: "We're going into this new record with the mentality and thinking of making it like a 'To Hell With The Devil 2'. That's not to say it will actually sound like that album, but we really want it to be as great as 'To Hell With The Devil', which was our biggest album. We want people to put on this record and go; 'Whoa! Wow! This is as good as or better than 'To Hell With The Devil'!' We want the new album to be a powerhouse and we're going to do whatever it takes to make that happen."

Frontiers Records earlier in the month announced the signing of Stryper to a multi-album deal. The first Cd to be made available the agreement will be a collection of re-recorded versions of the band's classic songs, due in North America on March 26. Entitled "Second Coming" and produced by Michael Sweet, the Cd will contain a total of 16 cuts — two from "The Yellow And Black Attack", six from "Soldiers Under Command", six from "To Hell With The Devil", as well as two new tracks, "Bleeding From Inside Out" and "Blackened".

Stryper's "Live In Indonesia At Java Rockin' Land" Dvd was released in October 2012 via Mvd Visual. The set was recorded in front of an enthusiastic crowd in 2010.

The band's covers album, "The Covering", was unlike any previous Stryper recording in that it was a collection of cover songs from bands that inspired them and helped to shape their sound and musical identity, including hits from Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Kansas and many others. "The Covering" also included "God", a new original recording from Stryper.

Photo credit: Tina Enos