"Wow! Typically (and historically) speaking, a new STRYPER record comes out every 2-3 years.

"I'm pleased to announce shocking news — we are starting pre-production at the end of February (of this year) and we begin recording the second week of March (of this year)! We will have a new record completed by early May 2010 and we will be planning for a release later in the year!!!

"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.

"More details to come and a specific song list and sequence to follow.

"We're looking forward to getting back into the studio and more important, to seeing all of you on the road again this year!"

Ulterium Records (through an arrangement with the Italian label Frontiers Records) released a limited 12" picture-disc edition of the latest STRYPER album, "Murder By Pride", in Europe on December 4. The LP is strictly limited to 500 copies, and comes with a full color poster inlay.

"Murder By Pride" sold 5,900 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 73 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was released in Europe on August 28, 2009 via Frontiers Records. It was made available in the U.S. on July 21, 2009 through Big 3 Records.