Metal bands generally don’t make me think about deceased Presbyterian theologians. Generally.
But Skillet does. That theologian would be Eugene Petersen, who in addition to his paraphrase of Scripture known as The Message, also wrote another book with a title that always inspires me: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Name-checking Peterson just might clue you into the reality that Skillet isn’t just about the music: It’s about the Word.
Skillet, formed in 1996, is closing in on three decades of faithfully translating the gospel into a language that many metal fans might not have heard any other way.
Sure, there are a handful of Christian rock bands that have been around longer; Stryper and Petra come to mind, and both have been on tour this year.
That said, I’m not sure that there’s any Christian band that tours as relentlessly as Skillet does. Every time I go to a meet-and-greet with this band and see how amazingly engaged they are with fans, I can’t help but think, Man, I think this would be hard to do night after night, year after year, decade after decade. I think they’d get tired. Jaded. Or, more simply, fade from relevance amid constantly changing musical tastes.
Yet they persist. Album after thunderous, unrelenting, prophetically challenging album. Tour after tour.
Now John and Korey Cooper, along with Jen Ledger and Seth Morisson, are at it again. They’ve moved on from longtime label home Atlantic onto their own new label, Hear It Loud. Indeed. And the band’s new album, Revolution—the Jesus kind, of course—the band’s next step in a long, loud obedience in the same direction.
Cooper and company tear into the album opener “Showtime” with a vengeance, a fist-in-the-air anthem custom made to open concerts for a long time to come. “Heart of a lion is roarin’ in my soul,” Cooper sings. “Truth is trapped like fire in my bones/Make my mark, no apologies/A day in the life, a revolutionary.”
A similar “won’t back down” sentiment infuses “Unpopular,” in which the band voices its determination to stand for truth no matter how much it gums up the gears of mainstream mindsets: “I won’t apologize when I speak my mind,” Cooper growls.
“All That Matters” clarifies that defiant stance, insisting that while “I don’t want to start a fight/I always try to do what’s right.” Cooper declares, “Fight for what I love/Help me God above/ … My faith, my family, my freedom’s/All that matters to me.”
“Not Afraid” proclaims exactly that message: “I am not afraid/I will keep the faith/Never back down ‘til my dying day.” Title track “Revolution” likewise stokes the embers of faith, reminding us that the revolutionary message Christians have to deliver is one of “Faith. Hope. Love.”
Skillet has often written songs from the perspective of someone struggling to hold on to hope and meaning, and we get two more of those songs here in “Ash in the Wind” and “Fire Inside of Me.” The former deals with someone struggling to throw off a yoke of lies and accusations perhaps from a human accuser, perhaps from our spiritual enemy: “Your words were your power over me,” Cooper sings. “You locked me inside this cage of glass.” But then he insists, “I wanna take back what you have stolen/I’m searching inside for what is real.” Similarly, “The Fire Inside of Me” confesses pain, doubt and isolation (“Like a vagabond I roam/With no home or peace/I know that I’m not fine/ … Cold and numb/I need to feel alive”), before turning toward God to experience that longed-for life (“Your touch, your life/Your fire.”)
“Defector” powerfully reminds us of God’s unwavering love for us: “I will be your light when you can’t see/ … I know the battle you’ve been through/I’m never backing out on you.”
The tender acoustic ballad “Happy Wedding Day (Alex’s Song)” will have listeners trading head-banging for tissue-dabbing as Cooper reflects on his daughter’s wedding day and all the memories that led up to that moment: “Now look at you standing in your white dress/Where’d the time go? Not prepared for this.”
But lest we think Skillet’s getting soft after three decades, album closer “Death Defier” pounds that doubt into submission as it salutes the faithful who’ve come before and paved the way for believers today: “All the fearless ones/All the fallen sons/Glory that never fades ‘cause they paid with pain and a trail to blaze.”
Some families may not be crazy about the lyrics “If thinking for myself’s called raising h—/I guess that I’m an outlaw.”
I don’t have any idea how long Skillet intends to keep pounding its fans with religiously “rebellious” anthems that challenge us to stand up for what we believe. But listening to Revolution, it feels like the band has fresh wind in its sails.
Feel free to disagree with me if you’re a longtime fan (and we’d love to hear what you think, too), but several tracks here very much remind me of the vibe on the band’s mid-2000s albums Comatose (2006) and Awake (2009).
The lone mild profanity mentioned above is the only issue here that some could potentially take issue with. Apart from that, Revolution keeps Skillet’s hard-rocking freight train hustling down the tracks, encouraging the broken, bungled and battered to hang on to hope and never to be ashamed of their faith—no matter what the world may say.
After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.
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