November 18, 2003 - Skillet and Collide

A week after my last release a new band joins my library when Skillet released their fifth album "Collide" on November 18, 2003. But who is Skillet? They are a four-piece Christian rock band from Memphis, Tennessee consisting of the only remaining original member John L. Cooper (lead vocals, bass), his wife Korey Cooper (keyboards), Ben Kasica (guitars) and Lori Peters (drums, percussion). I'm not a huge Skillet fan by any means, but I do have three songs off this album, all of them singles. The first one is "Open Wounds" and it's got a pretty catchy and smooth main riff and Cooper sounds solid overtop singing in a quiet voice. Once he gets louder he sounds much more mainstream and average (but still decent) and the heavy shift from the guitars in the chorus sounds great as Cooper sings a catchy chorus overtop. It's easy to see why this one was a single, it's catchy the whole way through and everything sounds pretty cool. It's the perfect mix of hard rock and made-for-radio, a cool song for sure and probably my favourite of the three! Up next is the title track "Collide" and Korey starts this one off with a slow, epic keyboard riff that sounds a bit like a strings section. The rest of the band eventually come thundering in for a hard-hitting chorus riff, but then fall away as we begin a quiet first verse with Cooper singing in his solid hushed voice overtop the quiet music. He sings a solid loud chorus once they return to the loud chorus riff and while this has a pretty slow pace, I can still see why it's a single, it's also very smooth the whole way through. Things quiet down after the second round as Korey plays an epic new piano riff then they nicely slam back in for a predictable final round before they end the song with just the epic piano. The last sing I have off this album is "Under My Skin" and it's driven by a fast and cool acoustic guitar riff to start and Cooper sings a decent, pop-y verse overtop. The chorus has a nice shift to some loud and heavier guitars and Cooper sings a pretty catchy chorus overtop as well, another no-brainer for a single! It also has a part where everything gets right quiet and Korey plays some epic piano, then they return to jam out a predictable but still solid last round. All three of these songs were good for sure, and this isn't the last we'll hear from Skillet either!

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