In 1983, Michael Sweet, Oz Fox, Perry Richardson and Robert Sweet joined forces and became Stryper, the metal band who raised their goblet of rock to the King above all kings. At the time, they were an anomaly — a band with all the trappings of colleagues like Pantera and Iron Maiden, but defiantly Christian lyrics. The band garnered a sizable mainstream following, including a platinum album with the awesomely named To Hell With the Devil. They’ve been dropping albums intermittently ever since and now, it’s time for the world to hear their story because why should the devil have all the good music documentaries?
That’s the premise of the band’s new Kickstarter that’s trying to raise $100,000 by the end of the month to fund an authorized documentary about the band. “As soldiers under God’s command, that means we’re once again going to have to BEAT THE ODDS and bring the message of Jesus to a place it has never been brought,” the band wrote on Kickstarter. “It also means that to do this properly, we’ve got to raise the money for production OURSELVES.”
The band is hoping that raising enough money will get the attention of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu and, hey, why not? Those places seem like they’d host just about anything and a rock metal band with its eyes set on eternity is definitely a story.
