Skillet's Awake Album Review
I have had time to process the new album Awake by the Christian Rock
band Skillet. This band has never really locked into their sound
spanning industrial, symphonic, and now hard rock. I don't listen to
christian rock stations, but am told that they had a few hits on there.
Good for them.
The best way for me to describe the sound of Awake is this: take EVERYTHING popular on modern rock radio right now and shake it up. You will get some amalgamation of Awake. This is a dumber way to say Skillet is now a genericized version of the following ultra generic bands like Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin.
It is well publicized on this site that I like my rock n roll just like I enjoy my water, straight from the tap, unfiltered, and filled with impurities! Three Days Grace is filtered through a Brita system and comes out clean and drinkable for the masses. But if Skillet is even more watered down then that...what does that make them? You decide.
No one song is utterly offensive and the cd really isn't that bad, it just sounds like everything else on the radio. The first track Hero adds a female vocalist to accent certain phrases and break up the gruff Adam Gontier (singer of Three Days Grace) like vocal stylings of John Cooper.
The softer radio songs, as I will call them, are basic rips of Hinder. Each song sounded like something I had heard before. For example, Should've When You Could've sounds just like a Daughtry rip off. Did Daughtry sell that song Skillet?
I have mentioned a few bands in this review, Hinder, Daughtry, Three Days Grace and each of those bands are clearly the influence for Skillet's album Awake. If you like radio rock, you might find something you enjoy in Skillet's latest album. If you are like me and need your rock n roll dangerous, sweaty, and blues infused, then you won't find too much to like in this release.
The best way for me to describe the sound of Awake is this: take EVERYTHING popular on modern rock radio right now and shake it up. You will get some amalgamation of Awake. This is a dumber way to say Skillet is now a genericized version of the following ultra generic bands like Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin.
It is well publicized on this site that I like my rock n roll just like I enjoy my water, straight from the tap, unfiltered, and filled with impurities! Three Days Grace is filtered through a Brita system and comes out clean and drinkable for the masses. But if Skillet is even more watered down then that...what does that make them? You decide.
No one song is utterly offensive and the cd really isn't that bad, it just sounds like everything else on the radio. The first track Hero adds a female vocalist to accent certain phrases and break up the gruff Adam Gontier (singer of Three Days Grace) like vocal stylings of John Cooper.
The softer radio songs, as I will call them, are basic rips of Hinder. Each song sounded like something I had heard before. For example, Should've When You Could've sounds just like a Daughtry rip off. Did Daughtry sell that song Skillet?
I have mentioned a few bands in this review, Hinder, Daughtry, Three Days Grace and each of those bands are clearly the influence for Skillet's album Awake. If you like radio rock, you might find something you enjoy in Skillet's latest album. If you are like me and need your rock n roll dangerous, sweaty, and blues infused, then you won't find too much to like in this release.
This Tennessee originated Christian metal/rock band, Skillet, recently released their eighth album, Awake, at the end of August this year, with the implication of Life.
Skillet is a four person band with much more talent that fifty big artists put together. They have a woman drummer, Jen Ledger, and a woman guitarist that also plays the keys, Korey Cooper, and two men that play the guitar, John Cooper and Ben Kasica. This band has such a strong relationship with the people at their church, in which their pastor chose their name because they were going to ‘throw it all in and see what they come up with.’
Track two of fifteen is a song called Monster. The meaning of this song is clear, “I hate what I’ve become, the nightmare has just begun, I must confess that I feel like a monster.” All of us have a dark side that is seeking to be saved; with this song, he is confessing his sins. While some of us believe this song to be harder than they would think of a Christian band, I find this song to be about overcoming the hard obstacles in life and taking a breath of fresh air, meaning that it’s relief of knowing there is another chance of creating something new.
Believe is their eighth song of the album. This song is serious and melodic that I am finding to be a dense combination of melody and lyrics that I have been fining all too rare. It screams of misunderstanding and unanswered love. This song caught my attention by its title because if you believe in yourself, you can achieve more than you realize.
Lucy is an emotional track that is number twelve on the CD. When I first heard this song, I thought that this was going to be another losing sympathy songs, but then I actually listened to the lyrics and realized that there was much more meaning to this sound track. It’s the idea that there is always a chance of a brand new start. Not only can that person’s life improve, but they have already learned from their mistakes and know not to make them again.
With lyrics like “I’m at war with the world cause I ain’t never gonna sell my soul, I already made up my mind no matter what I can’t be bought or sold,” is another song from their 15 track CD. The meaning behind this song is clear. Personally I can’t wait to see them perform this live with thousands of people singing along. “I’m Awake, I’m Alive, I know what I believe inside!”
Awake has other great tracks, such as Hero, Don’t Wake Me, One Day Too Late and much more, but these three songs caught my attention from their melody to their meaning. All in all, Skillet ROCKS!