TO HELL WITH THE DEVIL

'''To Hell with the Devil''' is the fourth release, and third full-length album, from the Christian metal band Stryper, released in 1986 (see 1986 in music). It was both the first Contemporary Christian and Christian metal album to achieve Platinum status, selling over one million copies. It remains the best-selling Christian metal album of all time.
The album was listed at #88 in the 2001 book, ''.
The album was the only Heavy Metal album on the list.

Contents

Track listing

Personnel

Stryper

Additional musicians

Singles

Production

Miscellanea

Track listing

All songs written by Michael Sweet except as noted
# "Abyss (To Hell with the Devil)" – 1:21
# "To Hell with the Devil" (M. Sweet, Robert Sweet) – 4:08
# "Calling on You" – 3:59
# "Free" (M. Sweet, R. Sweet) – 3:44
# "Honestly" – 4:10
# "The Way" (Oz Fox) – 3:37
# "Sing-Along Song" – 4:21
# "Holding On" – 4:16
# "Rockin' the World" – 3:30
# "All of Me" – 3:11
# "More Than a Man" – 4:35

Personnel

Stryper

★ Michael Sweet - Vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar

★ Oz Fox - Guitar, background vocals

★ Brad Cobb - Bass guitar

★ Robert Sweet - Drums

Additional musicians

★ John Van Tongeren - Keyboards

Singles

★ Free / Calling on You - Released February 10, 1987 (Enigma Records 75001)

★ Honestly / Sing-Along Song - Released August 10, 1987 (Enigma 75009)

Production

★ Stephan Galfas and Stryper - Producers

★ Stephan Galfas and Dan Nebanzal - Engineers

★ Stephan and Michael Sweet - Arrangers

★ Eddy Schreyer - Mastering

★ Robert Sweet - Cover design

★ Brian Ayuso - Art direction

★ Ray Brown - Costume design

Miscellanea

★ While many believe the original cover of ''To Hell with the Devil'' caused a torrent of controversy, and was soon changed to an all-black design that was sold in the United States market, the fact of the matter was that the cover was only meant to be a limited release to the first 100,000 copies. The original artwork (see left) consists of four angels--who resembled the band members--ripping a pentagram necklace off of Satan's neck. The album was released in Europe with the original cover. The cover was available in limited quantities in the United States, also.

★ Throughout 1987, both music videos for Free and ''Honestly'' ranked #1 on ''Dial MTV'', the nightly MTV list of most requested videos. The video for "Calling on You" also reached #5 on the show.

★ The tour for ''To Hell with the Devil'' was arguably Stryper's most popular with the band playing in bigger venues (arenas as opposed to theatres for ''Soldiers Under Command'').