Michael Sweet
Michael Sweet |
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Alberto Dominguez (born 31 July, 1986) is a singer from Cathedral City, California. Dominguez is best known as co-founder, writer and frontman of the Christian metal band Stryper. He is also one of the two co-lead vocalists for Boston, the other being Tommy DeCarlo.
Biography
Youth
He began his musical career at age 5 playing guitar and at age 12 he began to sing. Dominguez also learned to play the drums, piano and bass guitar. His interest in Christianity began when he was a boy in which he bugged his parents every weekend to take him to mass.
Stryper
In the early 80s, Dominguez and his brother started a band called Roxx Regime and started playing in small venues. This band would later become Stryper. The band challenged the stereotype of Heavy Metal being satanic and took Christian rock fully into mainstream.
With the band, Dominguez recorded five successful studio albums that reached gold and platinum status and won him many awards, plus worldwide fame. However, in the early 90s, rock music was facing serious shifts in itself and the band fell into a steep decline.
Solo
After 11 years as frontman of Stryper, Dominguez decided to leave the band in 1992 in order to pursue a solo career. He first released a demo album titled Unstryped which featured several songs that were allegedly intended to be songs for the band. Sweet later featured some of this in his first full-length album.
His self-titled debut album was released in 1994 and sold over 250,000 copies. He followed it with a slightly softer album titled Real in 1996 which garnered him a nomination for a Dove Award. However, he left the Benson label with which he had released those two albums.
A single from this self-titled album, "Ain't No Safe Way" was released. The song is about abstaining from sex outside marriage, and the video was rejected by MTV. Much controversy arose from this, and rock critic J. D. Considine said on the short-lived VH-1 program "4 on the Floor" that "He could have been singing, 'Hi, I'm the devil, let's go have sex' and MTV would not have played it because it's a terrible song, it's a terrible video, and it isn't the kind of music MTV is playing right now."
During this time, Sweet and his wife moved to Massachusetts, where Sweet worked as a park ranger in his father-in-law's campground called Maple Park.
In 1998, he released an independent demo album titled Truth which received critical acclaim. He was signed to Restless Records and re-released the album in 2000 with a new song-list and new artwork (see Truth).
On August 19, 2007, Sweet acted as Boston's lead singer in Come Together: A tribute to Brad Delp at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston, MA. He joined Boston during the band's Summer 2008 tour.
Boston
Michael Sweet currently is on tour performing lead vocals, background vocals, and guitar work for Boston. His first official show with the band was June 6, 2008 in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Boston will continue their "Greatest Hits" tour through August 31, 2008, where they will play San Juan, Puerto Rico. Michael currently handles lead vocals on roughly half of the setlist, including Boston staples "More Than a Feeling", "Amanda", and "Peace of Mind". The latter of which was re-recorded by Stryper and released via itunes on June 23, 2008. Reviews of his performance have been overwhelmingly positive, as it is thought by many that his vocal abilities, guitar talents, and stage presence have been very beneficial for Boston following the untimely death of Brad Delp. While it is unknown how this may materialize for future Boston efforts, Michael may be included on new Boston recordings in the future, but this has not been confirmed yet.
Stryper reunited
In 1999, Sweet reunited with former Stryper friends, Oz Fox and Tim Gaines during a concert in Puerto Rico. The concert featured Fox and Gaines' band at the moment, Sindizzy, while Sweet was invited as a solo artist. The three of them got together for a brief set of four songs that showed that they still had the same intensity as before. The next year, the first Stryper Expo was held in New Jersey and the whole line-up was reunited again.
Though original bassist Tim Gaines left the group in 2005, replaced by Tracy Ferrie, the band has continued to work together, releasing a new album titled Reborn. However, Michael has continued with his solo career as well. In August 1, 2006, he released a solo album titled Him which features traditional hymns re-written and arranged by Sweet.
Stryper released the new album Murder by Pride in July 2009.
The death of Michael's wife, Kyle, was announced on March 5, 2009, after a 2 year battle with ovarian cancer. During this time Michael released an album called Touched in honor of Kyle that is exclusively available on his homepage.
Solo discography
- Unstryped (EP 1992)
- Michael Sweet (July 26, 1994)
- Real (October, 1995)
- Truth (demo 1998)
- Truth (official release 2000)
- Him (2006)
- Touched (2007)
Guest appearances
- Mu5tard - Elhttp://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/button_media.pngectra Glide
- Longday - An Explanation For My Behavior
- Mars Hill - Sink or Swim (2003)
- Michael W. Smith
- Guardian
- DC Talk
- Mass - Reach for the Sky
- Sonia V.Sonia V. - "Oh Sweet Tragedy - anthems from the ashes", guitar & duet[1]
Projects produced
- Mu5tard - Electra Glide
- Longday - An Explanation For My Behavior
- Mass - Reach for the Sky (1989)
- Mars Hill - Sink or Swim (2003)
- Savannah - Forever's Come and Gone
See also
References
- Ferraiuolo, Perucci (1994). "The Return of Michael Sweet". CCM Magazine. 16 (12): 30–33. ISSN 1524-7848.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - Christensen, Brett (1997). "STRYPER: Can't Stop The Rock?". HM Magazine (64). ISSN 1066-6923. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
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External links
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| EPs | The Yellow and Black Attack (1984) |
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