TO HELL WITH THE DEVIL
8 TRACK Format

Stryper is one of the few hard rock bands from the 80's to have media in so many formats. Live In Japan was produced on Beta, VHS, and Laserdisc. In The Beginning was put out on VHS and Laserdisc respectively. Their audio recordings have been pressed on vinyl, cassette, compact disc, and 8 track. Yes, you read that right, 8 track! The big question is.... why?

Wes Hein, former president of Enigma Records, explains: "We expected To Hell With The Devil to be such a big title, and the Columbia Record club also

expected it to be big. They were still serving the last consumers who had 8 tracks, and they asked if we wanted it out on that format. We figured this would probably be the first and only 8 track we would ever put out as a company, so we said absolutely! It was fun, and we got a kick out of it. I doubt we sold very many."

The 8 track phenomenon debuted in 1965 and was originally just meant to be played in your car, truck or van. The following year home decks were invented. This media started to die out in the early 80's, but didn't officially disappear until around 1988. It is unknown how many of the To Hell With The Devil 8 tracks were produced, but there weren't many. Happy hunting!

Brett Christensen