Last night in the Dallas area, Random Hero's touring van was broken into.  Bags of personal belongings were stolen, as was their cash box, which had money they were going to use to buy new merchandise and pay for expensive repairs needed for their van.  The band issued this statement:

 We know that God is bigger than us, he's bigger than money, and he is bigger than this situation. We know that he will continue to provide and bless this ministry as he always has. We just ask that all of you keep us and our families in your prayers during this stressful time. And most importantly, we ask you to pray for those who did this. They must be in a bad situation if they resort to this.

 Random Hero is taking donations to cover the stolen cash:  http://www.randomheromusic.com/contact/

Red has not one, but TWO songs nominated for Rock Song Of The Year…those are their back-to-back Rock radio singles Who We Are and Perfect Life..  Not surprisingly, Skillet's Sick Of It is also nominated in the category as is We As Human's Strike Back, and Remedy Drive's Resuscitate Me.  All five of those songs are Blasted here.  

Switchfoot's song Afterlife is among the nominees for the "Rock/Contemporary" Song Of The Year Category.  Red is the only band nominated in both the Rock Song and Rock Album of the Year categories.  In the latter category, their Release The Panic album is among the nominees, as are:  Flyleaf's New Horizons; Thousand Foot Krutch's The End Is Where We Begin; Fireflight's Now; and House Of Heroes' album Cold Hard Want.  

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In the revolving door of Christian rock bands, Sent By Ravens is one of the most recent casualities falling prey to harsh economic reality.  But the good news is, even though the band is on what is potentially a permanent hiatus, they are doing a reunion concert in Jacksonville, Florida this Saturday, with House Of Heroes, Sumerlin and several other bands.  It all kicks off at 1:30 pm at Murray Hill Theatre. 

The Letter Black's next album comes out on November 12th. It will be called Rebuild.  The band offers a sample of one of the new songs on their website:  http://theletterblack.com/

 

Long before there was Skillet…there was another Christian hard rock/metal band that was filling the ears of millions around the world.  Thirty years ago, a band called Stryper arose in southern California and took the world by storm.  Stryper was so big back in the day that they were the first Christian rock or metal band to have popular mainstream/secular rock bands open FOR THEM. 

Since being founded 30 years ago, Stryper has sold over 8 million records, and they are about to sell a bunch more. 

Frontier Records will release Stryper's 11th studio album on November 5th in North America.  The title:  No More Hell To Pay.  

Stryper says it will be quite possibly be their best record yet, promising "high octane vocals, layered vocal harmonies, guitar solos galore, driving drums and bass and an energy that hasn't been seen since their glory days".   High octane vocals is putting it lightly.   'Aint no man anywhere in the Milky Way Galaxy that can scream in as high a pitch as lead vocalist Michael Sweet!

Stryper was one of the first Christian bands to ever have one of their videos played on MTV. 

After taking most of the 1990's off, this legendary band has come back on the scene in the 2000's, releasing a few albums in this century, but none with this much fanfare. 

Now that bassist Timothy Gaines is back in the fold, the band has their original lineup all together once more.  That lineup also includes axeman Oz Fox and Robert Sweet, drummer and brother of frontman Michael Sweet. 

No More Hell To Pay will have 12 new songs, including 11 Stryper originals and a cover of Jesus Is Just Alright, which was also covered by DC Talk in the 1990's.

Stryper has 6 remaining USA tour dates in 4 states in the month of August.

The Blast plays several "modern" Stryper songs: Reborn, Murder By Pride, God, and Blackened. Blackened is a song from their most recent album called Second Coming which is an album of the band band covering themselves.  That album came out in early 2013.