Review Summary: Don't expect this album to be as great as Comatose, but is a better overall album than Awake
Skillet has been around a long time, and gone through many line up changes. The only member who has been part of the band since the beginning is John Cooper. This album is the first with guitarist Seth Morrison. Gone is Ben Kasica who joined the band at age 16 during the album sessions of Alien Youth recording the song Earth Invasion with the band. He has left to pursue other ventures like graphic design and music production and videos, and directed one of Skillet's new videos "Not Gonna Die". Losing Kasica could have been a big blow to band, but Morrison addition pays off on many tracks.
The opener "Rise" starts off electronic drums and beat. This song kind of has a mix of old Skillet from Alien Youth days to some of the new style they have adopted since Comatose. The lyrics are about standing up for what you belive. My favorite line in the song is "In a world gone mad, sometimes it's crazy to fight for what you belive, but you can't give up if you want to keep what you love". The end has an outro that fits with some of the events that occured in the last year involving school shootings and such. "Sick of It" is an interesting single. It is good but does not live up to Skillet's potential. One of the best singles to come out is "Not Gonna Die" which takes some stylistic similiarties with the song "Awake and Alive" from Awake. It starts off with some awesome electric violin playing from Jonathan Chu. Chu has been on every album since Comatose, and has been a very good addition to the band. The lyrics are decent and Jen Ledger's voice goes well with the song. There is a cool cool guitar solo by Morrison in this song which alone makes it worth repeated listens. A definite highlight on this album.
Another highlight off the album is "Circus for a Psycho" which has an AC/DC type guitar riff by lead guitarist Morrison. His guitar work on this song alone is very cool. There is a fan chant in the song which works on album, but probably works better in concert. There are some electronic sounds that the band has fallen back to on this song. These sounds were used heavily on their Alien Youth album, but have largely been abanonded over the years. Kind of nice throwback of old Skillet meets new Skillet.
"American Noise" which was the 2nd single released as a preview to this album is a big let down. The song is a power ballad, but lacks a lot of the punch that Skillet has provided in power ballads like "The Older I Get" and "Those Nights". Also, John Cooper voice really struggles in parts of this song. "Madness in Me" seems like a song too close to their hit single "Monster". In fact, I have called it "Monster Part II". The outro to the song is very cool, and we get to hear Xavier Cooper, John and Korey Cooper's daughter quote a very important scripture before the song "Salvation." "Salvation" is a better power ballad. John's Cooper's voice really struggles on this song, but Jen Ledger's makes up for it.
"My Religion" is a totally different song for Skillet with organ and a southern type gospel sound to it. It talks about that all he needs is Jesus. And there is nice addition of Amazing Grace at the tail end of this song. The last song on the regular album pressing is "What I Believe" which has another nice electric violin solo by Jonathan Chu. This song is about coming to Christ and confessing that he/she needs Chirst in their lives. A nice closing song to the album.
I have the deluxe version with 3 additional tracks, "Battle Cry", "Everything Goes Black" and "Freakshow". The strongest of the bunch being "Freakshow" which is another ode to their Alien Youth album. John Cooper does his vocals like a circus sideshow announcer, and can see this as being a good way to start their concerts. It's a fun and active song with lots of nice guitar riffs by Seth Morrison.
The weakest parts of this album are "Good to Be Alive", "American Noise" and "Hard to Find". Which seem to be filler or just duds. It's a very good record that could have been better with some better producing or less producing I should say.
Highlights: Rise, Not Gonna Die, Circus for a Psycho, Salvation, My Religion, What I Believe, and Freakshow (Bonus Track)
