Riff Police! Pull Over! #148: Stryper Vs Astral Doors!

Over the past nineteen years Swedish Heavy Metal band Astral Doors have created an impressive discography of nine studio albums and an EP, releasing something fresh for their fans every two years. Five years into their career in 2007 they started learning more on their Power Metal influences with “New Revelation“, a record which divided the opinions of fans and critics alike with a new direction that left them wondering where the band were headed, despite their lyrics still looking at human values and with often hidden Politically aware moments. Listening to the title track of that record, you’d have to ask the then axe weilding partnership of Joachim Nordlund and Martin Haglund about its influences but we can hear the riff from “The Way” by Orange County Californian Glam Metal band Stryper from 1986’s “To Hell With The Devil” as clear as a whistle. The World’s biggest Christian Metal act before the arrival of P.O.D. with “Satallite” (thanks to HUGE single “Alive”) in 2001, this album raised the bar and challenged the very definition of Metal at the time. But judge for yourself.