The Roxx Regime Demos (CD - 2007)

Personnel: Michael Sweet, Oz Fox (vocals, guitar); Timothy Gaines (vocals); Robert Sweet (drums).

Additional personnel: Jay Van Togren (keyboards).

Audio Remasterer: Jeff Carroll.

Recording information: Casbah Studio, Fullerton, CA (1983).

Before they took on the name Stryper, the world's leading Christian hair metal outfit (not too many of those, eh?) was going by the nom de plume of Roxx Regime. And the 2007 compilation, Roxx Regime Demos, is comprised of -- you guessed it! -- demos from this pre-Stryper edition of the band. Overall, you hear a band that had pretty much found their sound early on -- on par with such then-pop-metal chart rulers as Ratt and Mötley Crüe -- except for an unmistakably more "positive" message (in other words, no tales about sex 'n' drugs). Case in point, such early Stryper favorites as "You Know What to Do" (a track for which a video was eventually filmed circa Stryper's debut release, The Yellow and Black Attack!) and "From Wrong to Right." And added as an extra bonus is a demo of the band's eventual sappy power ballad hit, "Honestly," from a few years after the "Roxx Regime era." Obviously aimed at die-hard Stryper fans, Roxx Regime Demos provides an authentic snapshot of the group in their early stages. ~ Greg Prato minimize