“Ten” is the latest album from Michael Sweet, the singer and guitarist best known for fronting Stryper. It was released on 11th October via Frontiers Music. The album title reflects it being Michael Sweet’s tenth ‘solo’ album, although two of those albums are actually Sweet & Lynch releases (with guitarist George Lynch). There are guest appearances on the album from Todd La Torre, Tracii Guns, Will Hunt, Joel Hoekstra, Jeff Loomis, Gus G and others. The track “Shine” was featured on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 6th September, followed by “Ten” on 27th September.


 

Michael Sweet was a founding member of Stryper back in 1982 and recorded five studio albums with them between 1984 and 1990 before leaving in 1992 to launch a solo career. Invariably of course if you’re reading something about Stryper, the phrase “Christian metal band” seems to be included in the same sentence. The band later reformed and they’ve released six new studio albums and an album of re-recordings with two new tracks (“Second Coming”) since 2005. The latest album was “God Damn Evil” in 2018.


Michael Sweet released his first self-titled solo album in 1994 and there were a further six solo albums up to 2016 and the release of “One Sided War”. The first Sweet & Lynch album “Only To Rise” was released in 2015 and was followed by “Unified” in 2017. Sweet was my guest on the Friday NI Rocks Show back in October 2015 just after the release of the Stryper album “Fallen”, but we also discussed his solo career and the collaboration with George Lynch – http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews/2282-ni-rocks-interview-with-michael-sweet-from-stryper.html

 

There are a number of guest appearances on the album. Jeff Loomis from Arch Enemy plays on “Better Part Of Me”, Tracii Guns on “Ricochet”, Gus G on “Now or Never” and Joel Hoekstra on “Never Alone” and “When Love is Hated”. Todd La Torre from Queensryche appears on the bonus track “Son of Man”.

 

 

About “NI Rocks Recommends”

This is purely a personal recommendation and some information about the artist and the album; not a traditional ‘review’. Most of the recommendations posted are for albums that have been sent to us digitally by the record label or promoter. Quite often I’ve also bought the album on CD or vinyl as well and sometimes I just feel the need to post a recommendation for an album that I’ve bought myself. Essentially these are albums that I like and which I’ve played some tracks from on the Shows on Rock Radio NI!