Walmart Refuses to Carry the New Album By… Stryper???

It’s not entirely unusual for a big chain store to decline to carry a metal album. In the days before the Internet made it possible to buy and sell pretty much anything, artists from Judas Priest to Guns N’ Roses to Cannibal Corpse to Andrew W.K. have found themselves in a position where they’ve had to make adjustments to album art or titles or otherwise not be stocked by some of the most readily-accessible stores in the market.

Still, if there’s one metal band you’d never expect to join this list of infamy, it’s Stryper.

You read that correctly. Stryper. The goody two-shoes of metal. Stryper. A band that exists to make Winger seem edgy by comparison. Stryper. We’re still not convinced Ted Cruz and Michael Sweet aren’t the same guy. That Stryper.

And yet, according to a press release from the band, the fact that their new album title contains the phrase “God damn” is creating some headaches for them:

“Expressing concerns over the album title, leading national retail chain Walmart has refused to carry chart-topping rock band Stryper’s upcoming 10th studio album, God Damn Evil — available April 20, 2018 from Frontiers Music SRL. Several Christian retail chains have also objected to the title and declined to carry God Damn Evil in their stores.”

Which is hilarious, because Stryper are themselves devoutly Christian. Not in a once-someone-points-it-out-you-can-totally-see-it-in-the-lyrics, As I Lay Dying kinda way; in a “Our next song is dedicated to our lord and savior!”-kinda way. Their most famous album is called To Hell with the Devil, fer Chrissakes.

It’s also not really a big deal. Like I said, the Internet makes it possible to buy and sell almost anything. In fact, the press release completely fails to mention that Walmart has refused to carry the album in stores only — meaning you can still get it on Walmart.com. Can’t imagine why they’d leave that part out.