Earlier today I was in a local second hand shop browsing through the music section when I spotted some old Stryper cassettes. That's cool I thought as I randomly grabbed "To Hell With The Devil" only to almost toss my cookies upon discovering it featured the original "angel cover".

Now, I had no idea the "angel cover" was even released on cassette. Does anybody know how rare this is or even what it might be worth?

Needless to say I bought it- and not a bad deal for just .99 cents!

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Wow, I had no idea it was released on cassette either.
Very cool find.

Still cannot believe they changed that cover it was/is fantastic.

Apparently the LP and cassette were released quite freely with that cover art outside of Japan. I did a quick check on ebay and found some cassettes and LPs that have sold/are selling pretty cheap. The LP seems to go for more because of the artwork visibility I think. The original CD release was not distributed outside of Japan, or not widely as I believe some were released in Europe, and as such is in very high demand. Michael Sweet re-release a CD version with this cover art a few years ago, but they are also pretty highly sought after and run over $20 typically. I have the MS version, and I used to have the Japanese original, but sold it long ago.

I bought the MS re-release when he offered it a few years ago....mainly to get Winter Wonderland, a song I love. Getting the original "angel" artwork was a big bonus. I never knew how rare that cover was.

What a very cool cover is this.

I'm going to save that picture and change the artwork from what I have in my Zune. My CD has the boring cover, and this will look much cooler in the Zune.

I bought the cassette with the angel cover as soon as it was released. Still have it.

If it's rare, maybe I should think about selling it.

I could be mistaken but, I think the Angel cover cassette was available most everywhere in the USA but the revised censored black cover and was distributed by Benson Records in christian stores. The CD with the Angel cover on the other had was only available in Japan & Germany. The German Angel cover was a tad different then the Japan CD because they blurred the pentagram on the cover with a white cloud.

Yes, the vinyl & cassette version w/ the "angel" cover is much more widely available than the original US pressing on CD - that's the one that was pulled by many distributors due to the "graphic" nature of the album art. Not sure why. I have an original "angel" cover on vinyl, and the later CD version w/ the black cover.

I've got the plain version, and also the Michael Sweet re-release with the bonus track on it.

Fundy