Stryper’s Sweet Dissatisfaction : The Christian heavy metal band is still trying to reignite the career that stalled when its lead singer and songwriter quit.

From 1984 to 1990, the best-selling rock band in Orange County was the Christian heavy metal group Stryper, the most prominent Christian hard rock band in the nation. Its five albums during that period sold near or above the 500,000 mark, with “To Hell With the Devil,” from 1986, topping a million.

But today, the band finds itself without a record contract, and without Michael Sweet, the lead singer and main songwriter who fronted Stryper as it rose to fame.

Sweet, 28, left Stryper in January to make his own music. Six months later, the three other original band members are still trying to replace him and reignite their stalled career.

“In essence, it is starting over, a lot of work,” said Robert Sweet, Michael’s drum-playing older brother who is carrying on in Stryper with guitarist Oz Fox and bassist Timothy Gaines.

Robert, 32, said Stryper’s world turned dotty in just one week. First, his brother shocked the band by announcing that he was quitting. Then Stryper’s label, Hollywood Records, informed the band that it was being dropped after only one release, a 1991 “Best Of” collection. (Enigma Records, which released Stryper’s previous albums, had folded the year before.)

“It was kind of like hell week in boot camp,” Robert said. “It’s as if I’m still in boot camp.”

Until last week, Sweet thought Stryper had found a new front man, Dale Thompson, a Kentuckian who performs with another Christian heavy metal band, Bride.

Sweet said Thompson had volunteered to sing for Stryper in February after hearing of Michael Sweet’s departure. Stryper and Bride had toured together last year, Sweet said. “I liked him as a person, and I knew he was a good singer.” Thompson sang two shows with Stryper on May 1 at Knott’s Berry Farm and was ready to join the band permanently--until last week. Then, Sweet said, Thompson informed him that he would not be able to get out of contractual commitments binding him to Bride.

“The game plan now is to start auditioning people,” Sweet said. While Stryper intends to continue emphasizing Christian values and messages, he added, the band is open to working with a singer who doesn’t have a “born-again” commitment.

“I would hope to find a Christian so we can share the same views lyrically and get the same message out there, but there are people who call themselves Christians who don’t act like it, and there are people out there who don’t really know what Christianity is, but their heart is sincere and they can move toward it. It gets down to a matter of the heart, not a matter of the words.”

Sweet said that interested singers (guitar-playing talent is preferred, but not required) can contact Stryper at (714) 739-9631.

Michael Sweet, meanwhile, has made demo recordings, found a new manager and a couple of new band mates, and says he is in negotiations for a record deal.

Speaking over the phone from his home in Fullerton, the younger Sweet said he left Stryper for complex reasons, none of which had to do with personal conflicts.

“It was a lot of things tied up together,” he said. “Music, style, image--a number of things. I felt there was no need for me (in Stryper) anymore. I didn’t have the motivation or desire to stay. I love the guys, and it had nothing to do with us not getting along. But I felt it was time to move along, and I’m happy I did it.”

One reason he left Stryper, he said, is that he no longer wants to be identified as a heavy metal singer. He said his new stylistic emphasis will be mainstream rock along the lines of Bryan Adams or Bon Jovi.

“I don’t know if I’ve gotten old or what, but I’m not a metal guy any more. I could have stayed in (Stryper) and forced a more mainstream (direction), but nobody would have been happy.”

He said he is looking for a record deal like Amy Grant’s that would connect him simultaneously to a Christian label and a secular record company, thereby covering both markets. “My beliefs are stronger than they’ve ever been toward God,” he said. “Musically, I will express my beliefs, definitely.” He said he has recruited two musicians, lead guitarist Michael Shawn, who is from Tennessee, and drummer Jamie Wollam, who played in the Southern California band Surrender. He is still looking for a bassist.

Robert Sweet says he still doesn’t fully understand why his brother left Stryper. The band was flexible enough to pursue Michael’s mainstream rock interests as well as metal, Robert said, noting that Stryper’s past repertoire has included a good deal of pop-based material, such as the ballad “Honestly.”

“It really sent a shock wave through me, and I’m trying to understand how he feels. The hardest thing for me was seeing that we had worked together 15 years, and I couldn’t understand why Michael had to leave. He always was one to say this was like a marriage, but I guess nothing in this world lasts forever.

“I don’t think that he meant to hurt us or cause problems. He just viewed it as his time to go. Mike’s got to be happy, and we have to be understanding of that.”

Michael said he told the band he was leaving before a rehearsal in which Stryper was supposed to begin writing songs for a new album. He said he offered to continue performing with the band while it fulfilled concert bookings that already had been made--including a winter tour of Europe and the May 1 appearance at Knott’s. But he said he later heard through the band’s booking agent that the three other members had taken an attitude that “I’m either in or I’m out,” and had decided to play the shows without him.

“I was real bummed out, but it’s all worked out now,” Michael said.

Leaving Stryper “was weird, because there is that (brotherly) bond,” he added. “But it’s something I had to do. We played together since I was 12 and (Robert) was 15 and the attitude had always been ‘we’ll never break up, the two of us will always stick together,’ and it didn’t happen.

“I have not one bad thing to say about them. They’re great guys. I hope they do well, and I hope we can remain buddies.”

“We still talk, and we only live a mile away from one another,” said Robert, a Buena Park resident. “I just saw him yesterday. He’s my brother, and that’s something that will always be there. Maybe through this (split) something really good will happen. We’re trying to pick up the pieces and realize the show must go on. But it’s a different thing, leaving and being left. The bottom line is, I love my brother, and I told him I’m going to miss him.”